Human Rights Watch, Nigeria ratifies the International Convention on the Prohibition of Cluster Bombs

Since the end of World War II over forty countries have experienced the indiscriminate violence of cluster bombs. In recent times this lethal ammunition has been used in Ukraine by both Russians and Ukrainians. Cluster bombs are munitions that are generally dropped from planes: from a sort of “mother bomb” that opens in flight, other munitions come out and deposit themselves over very large areas. Most of these munitions do not explode when they hit the ground, so they pose a long-term danger, just like landmines.
Human Rights Watch. “Nigeria’s decision to join the cluster bomb ban demonstrates that countries can play an important role against these heinous weapons, which endanger lives long after the fighting is over,” said Steve Goose, director of the weapons department at Human Rights Watch and chair of the Cluster Munition Coalition, an international campaign – which Human Rights Watch co-founded – that works to eliminate cluster munitions. Goose stresses that Nigeria must now meet the requirements of the treaty and destroy any stockpiles of weapons that are on its territory.
The Cluster Munition Monitor report. The annual report released by Cluster Munition Coalition points out that Nigeria has neither produced nor exported cluster munitions, but has imported quite a lot of them and may therefore have used them in the past. For this reason, it may still have stockpiles that it is required to dispose of within eight years of ratifying the Convention. Furthermore – it reads on the site of Human Rights Watch – Nigerian authorities should investigate whether cluster munitions have been used in the past and consequently clean up the affected territories and establish whether there have been any casualties from these weapons.
Countries waiting to ratify the Convention. São Tomé and Príncipe was the last country to ratify the Convention on Cluster Munitions, in January 2020. Eight of the twelve signatory countries that have not yet
have ratified it are found in Africa: Angola, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Djibouti, Kenya, Liberia, Tanzania and Uganda. The other signatories are Cyprus, Haiti, Indonesia and Jamaica. Eleven other African countries have yet to accede to the Convention: Algeria, Egypt, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan and Zimbabwe.
Cluster bombs in Ukraine. Over the past year, it is known that Russian forces have repeatedly used cluster munitions in Ukraine, responsible not only for the deaths of thousands of civilians but also for the
destruction of many infrastructures, schools and hospitals. There is also evidence of the use of cluster munitions by the Ukrainian government during the war in at least three locations under Russian control: in Husarivka, Kharkiv oblast; in Yenakiieve, in the Donestk oblast and in Kherson – reads the Cluster Munition Monitor.
No cluster bombs from NATO countries. However, there is nothing to suggest that the cluster weapons were sent from third countries and this confirms how the NATO countries have somehow aligned themselves in banning these bombs. Both Russian and Ukrainian forces used cluster munitions from July 2014 until the February 2015 ceasefire in the territories of eastern Ukraine. Cluster munitions were also used in attacks in Syria’s Idlib governorate on November 6, 2022 by the Syrian-Russian military alliance, killing and wounding civilians.
The use of cluster munitions in the past. Since the end of World War II in 1945, at least 23 governments have used cluster munitions in 41 countries and five other areas. Nearly every region of the world has experienced the use of cluster bombs over the past 70 years: Southeast Asia, Southeast Europe, the Caucasus, the Middle East and North Africa, Sub-Saharan Africa, America Latin and the Caribbean.