Guinea-Bissau

Since 2022, Guinea-Bissau has benefited from the support of Norway and the Netherlands through Mines Advisory Group (MAG). This funding has enabled the reactivation of the National Mine Action Coordination Centre (CAAMI) and the national clearance operator, Humanitarian Aid (HUMAID). In 2023, three operators received operational accreditation for demining: HUMAID, MAG, and The HALO Trust. Progress was made on developing national standards and workshops were held on hazardous area classification, information management, and gender and diversity. During the first quarter of 2024, survey, battle area clearance (BAC) and explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) spot tasks resumed after refresher training, including on non-technical survey (NTS), technical survey (TS), and EOD. The provisional results of survey as at August 2024 indicated that two of the nine confirmed hazardous areas (CHAs) were confirmed to contain AP mines. The seven others were still undergoing survey.Response from Guinea-Bissau to questions from the Committee on Article 5 Implementation on its 2024 extension request, 2 August 2024, pp. 3 and 7.

On 19 April 2024, Guinea-Bissau requested a new deadline for its Article 5 clearance obligation under the Anti-Personnel Mine Ban Convention (APMBC) of 31 December 2027. The request for a three-year extension was being considered at the Fifth Review Conference of the Convention in November 2024. The national work plan seeks to complete nationwide NTS by the end of 2026, create a functioning information management system, build a sustainable national capacity for survey and clearance, and elaborate a strategy to address residual threats.

In June 2021, having declared it had fulfilled its Article 5 obligations nine years earlier, Guinea-Bissau reported to States Parties the discovery of 1.09km2 in nine CHAs and 43 suspected hazardous areas (SHAs) of an unknown size containing anti-personnel (AP) mines and/or explosive remnants of war (ERW). Since then, Guinea-Bissau has made three requests to extend the deadline of its Article 5 obligations. The first was granted in November 2021, the second in November 2022, and most recently, a third was submitted in April 2024 and was due to be considered at the Twenty-First Meeting of States Parties Fifth Review Conference in November. Since 2022, Guinea-Bissau has benefitted from the financial support of Norway and Netherlands, and the technical support of MAG. It started delivering in 2023 on the objectives it had set out, albeit with delayed timelines.

• Guinea-Bissau should maintain its resource mobilisation efforts, both nationally and internationally, to enable fulfilment of its Article 5 obligations with funding from Norway and the Netherlands due to end in 2024.
• In order to comply with the APMBC, Guinea-Bissau should conduct the nationwide NTS in order to confirm or deny the presence of AP mines and determine the location and extent of any contamination.
• During survey, Guinea-Bissau should ensure that areas of AP mine contamination or mixed contamination are clearly disaggregated from those areas solely containing anti-vehicle (AV) mines or other types of explosive ordnance (EO) contamination not covered by the Convention, such as explosive remnants of war (ERW).
• Guinea-Bissau should prioritise TS and clearance of mined areas in order that it may fulfil its Article 5 obligations as soon as possible.
• Guinea-Bissau should proceed to establish a reliable mine action information management system.

Click here to download the "Clearing the Mines 2024" report for Guinea-Bissau.