Humanitarian Disarmament in Mauritania
The land mine and Explosive Remnants of War ( ERW ) contamination in Mauritania is a result of the Western Sahara conflict in 1975-1978 between Morocco, Mauritania and the Polisario Front. The impact of contamination is predominantly socioeconomic rather than humanitarian; however, contamination also blocks access to pasture and other subsistence community resources.
MBT : state party; clearance deadline: 1 January 2016.
CCM : state party; completed clearance.
Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) began its operations in Mauritania in 2011. NPA works both as an operator, clearing and releasing landmine and cluster munition contaminated land, as well as a capacity building actor supporting the national mine action centre.
With NPA’s support, Mauritania declared its compliance with article 4 of the convention on cluster munitions in September 2014.
Moreover, Mauritania is set to declare compliance with its article 5 obligations of the Mine Ban Treaty by December 2015, just in time to comply with its MBT treaty deadline.
NPA commenced its operations in Mauritania in 2011 with a small team from the NPA Jordan Humanitarian Disarmament Programme.
NPA is the first and only international mine action operator to conduct clearance activities in Mauritania.
There is a buffer zone 5 km from the berm where NPA does not conduct clearance activities.