Today is the Global Day of Action to Ban Cluster Munitions. It is an international day of action where members of the public and civil society organisations in countries worldwide are taking part in actions to demonstrate their support for a treaty banning cluster munitions.

Cluster munitions are large weapons of war that open in mid-air and scatter widely in smaller submunitions, which usually number in the dozens or hundreds resulting in the death and maiming of thousands of innocent civilians. To this day their use continues to challenge accepted principles of international humanitarian law
While all weapons are potentially dangerous to civilians, cluster bombs pose a particular threat to civilians for two reasons:

1.They have a wide area of effect. The area affected by a single cluster munition, known as its footprint, can be as large as two or three football fields. When dropped they disperse into hundreds of smaller bomblets, or sub-munitions - and that is what, according to the UN, makes them more dangerous and vicious than landmines.

2. They have consistently left behind a large number of unexploded bomblets. The unexploded bomblets remain dangerous for decades after the end of a conflict. In some cases the color, coupled with their small and nonthreatening appearance, has caused children to interpret them as toys, resulting in their untimely death and some severely injured. This problem was exacerbated in the War in Afghanistan.

Cluster munitions do not distinguish between combatants and civilians. In addition to the huge number of bomblets used and the resulting number of explosive remnants of war means that the harm continues long after a conflict. Even when only a small percentage fails, communities face long-term contamination from unexploded ordnance.

These weapons must be stopped before conflict zones face another crisis on the scale of landmines.

Although the effect of cluster munitions on Africa is quite minimal in countries such as Sudan and Sierra Leone, African Governments must actively support the banning of these lethal weapons to prevent their future use on African soil. The continent, especially Sub-Saharan African is still battling with the consequences of remnants of arms and weapons inherited from decades of armed conflicts. Since the end of the cold war, Africa has spent approximately US $ 300 billion on wars and conflicts. Millions of people have been killed and Hundreds of thousands displaced and maimed.
It is therefore important for Africa and in West Africa to concentrate on development and stand up against the production and use of weapons of violence and destruction.

As a country that does not maintain stockpiles of cluster munitions, we congratulate the Government of Ghana for supporting the Oslo process to ban cluster munitions and urge the Government to maintain its position not to acquire cluster muntions, not to use cluster munitions in the future and not to commence any production of cluster munitions. Like fire bombs and landmines before them, cluster munitions must be subject to specific international rules.

While talks on cluster munitions continue, both at the United Nations and within civil society, all States must stop the use of this weapon in order to ensure the protection of civilians in armed conflict.