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Key developments since May 2001: Nigeria acceded to the Mine Ban Treaty on 27 September 2001. Antipersonnel mines were among the debris after massive explosions at an ammunition transit depot in January 2002.
President Obasanjo signed Nigeria’s instrument of accession to the Mine Ban Treaty on 23 July 2001, and Nigeria formally deposited it with the United Nations on 27 September 2001, making all sixteen members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) party to the treaty. The treaty entered into force for Nigeria on 1 March 2002.
At a major conference on International Humanitarian Law, the Minister of State for Defense stated, “[W]e have sincerely supported the ratification of the Ottawa Treaty and its implementation, because we believe it is a question of military professionalism and humanity. With antipersonnel mines, there is no way to compromise and accommodate limitation: the only realistic solution is a total ban.”[1]
The government has stated that it is “looking into” the domestic implementation legislation of the treaty.[2] Nigeria’s first Article 7 transparency report is due 28 August 2002.
Nigeria did not attend the Third Meeting of State Parties in September 2001 in Managua, Nicaragua. A representative of the Permanent Mission of Nigeria to the United Nations in Geneva attended the intersessional Standing Committee meetings in January and May 2002. Nigeria cosponsored and voted in favor of UN General Assembly Resolution 56/24M on 29 November 2001, calling for the full implementation of the Mine Ban Treaty.
Nigeria is not a signatory to the Convention on Conventional Weapons (CCW) and did not participate in the third annual meeting of States Parties to Amended Protocol II or the Second CCW Review Conference in December 2001 in Geneva. However, the government has said that the CCW is “an indispensable complement to the prohibition of antipersonnel mines and we should, therefore, consider the two treaties together,” noting that “antipersonnel mines are not the only weapon or ammunition that creates unimaginable suffering.”[3]
The International Committee of the Red Cross, in collaboration with ECOWAS, organized a “Conference on Arms and International Humanitarian Law: the CCW and the Ottawa Treaty,” in Abuja from 10 and 11 October 2001, which was attended by fourteen countries of the region.[4]
Nigeria is not known to have ever produced or exported antipersonnel mines. Nigeria has stated that it has not acquired or used antipersonnel mines since the 1967-1970 Biafra Civil War.[5] In February 2001, the Chief of Operations of the Nigerian Army said that most Nigerian antipersonnel mines were used up in the war, and remaining stocks were destroyed shortly thereafter. He said that no antipersonnel mines are kept even for training or development purposes.[6]
However, slides presented to States Parties in May 2002 indicate Nigeria still had antipersonnel mines in stocks. On 27 January 2002, the Ammunition Transit Depot in Ikeja Cantoment, Lagos, caught fire resulting in a large number of explosives being activated, with massive destruction of property and loss of lives. At the 30 May 2002 meeting of the Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction, a representative of Munitions Consultants (United Kingdom) gave a presentation on the Lagos incident, and several slides showed antipersonnel mines that had been recovered from the wreckage.[7] The press reported an injury due to a mine the day after the incident (see Landmine Casualties section).
The United States donated $2,668,000 for explosive ordnance disposal following the Lagos incident. This included provision of fully equipped and trained U.S. unexploded ordnance clearance and verification teams, and training of 20 Nigerian military to complete clearance.[8]
Nigeria is not mine-affected. There were casualties from landmines laid in the civil war, but no further information is available. It is not known if any Nigerian soldiers involved in peacekeeping operations have been killed or injured by landmines. The day after the explosions at the Ammunition Transit Depot, a young man was reportedly injured by stepping on a landmine at the scene.[9]
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[1] Keynote address presented by the Minister of State for Defense (Navy), Mrs. Dupe Adelaja, at the Conference on Weapons and International Humanitarian Law: The UN Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons and the Ottawa Treaty, held at the ECOWAS Secretariat, Abuja, Nigeria, 10-11 October 2001.
[2] Interview with Desk Officer on Disarmament, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Abuja, Nigeria, 20 February 2002.
[3] Address by the Minister of State for Defense (Navy), Abuja, Nigeria, 10-11 October 2001.
[4] Participants to the meeting included: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d’Ivoire, the Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, and Togo.
[5] See Landmine Monitor Report 2001, pp. 256-257. Nigeria denies allegations that its ECOWAS troops used mines in the 1990s in Liberia and Sierra Leone. See Landmine Monitor Report 1999, p. 203.
[6] Interview with Major General Yellow-Duke, at the Bamako Regional Seminar on Landmines, Mali, 15 February 2001.
[7] The presentation was given by Bob Scott, Munitions Consultants, UK, to the Standing Committee on Stockpile Destruction, Geneva, 30 May 2002. See page 12 at
http://www.gichd.ch/pdf/mbc/SC_may02/speeches_sd/Scott_Nigeria.pdf. US experts involved in the clean-up confirmed to Landmine Monitor the presence of antipersonnel mines.
[8] US Department of State Fact Sheet, “The US Humanitarian Demining Program and NADR Funding,” 5 April 2002; email from State Department Office of Humanitarian Demining Programs, 16 July 2002.
[9] “Today in the Nigerian Papers,” P.M. News, 29 January 2002.
