In this feature, part of a series exploring the fight against trafficking in the Sahel, UN News focuses on the illicit arms trade that fuels conflict and terrorism.
In the Sahel, home to 300 million people, it is a buyer’s market for guns. Conflict and banditry plague the region, fueling, among other things, inter-communal conflict, conflict between farmers and herdsmen, the spread of violent sectarianism, and competition over such scarce resources as water. and arable land in the middle of the hot weather.
“Non-state groups are fighting among themselves for supremacy, pushing States to the brink, and causing endless misery to millions of people who have had to flee their communities in search of safety,” Giovanie Biha, Executive Director of the Organization’s Office Global. for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS), told the UN Security Council, presenting the Secretary-General’s report on the region.
Arms flow in the Sahel
‘We buy more guns’
Behind the confusion and frustration comes the illegal arms trade.
Many of the weapons transfer stations are on the Sahel rim borders or transit routes where many criminal activities take place, according to the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). Illegal markets – often hidden in plain sight in towns and villages along strategic corridors – remain undisturbed by authorities’ detection.
All parties involved in the conflict are now dealing with arms and ammunition, according to a recent UNODC report on arms trafficking. As the number of members increases, so do the business opportunities for merchants.
The report tracks issues with a view to better understanding the phenomenon and its drivers. When Nigerian authorities asked a suspect how his group spent the $100,000 ransom they paid to release the kidnapped schoolgirls, he said “we bought more guns”, according to reports the.
Fleeing her village in northern Cameroon after armed rebels took control, Mamma Hamidou (centre) received a grant from UNDP and, with her money, built a small house just send your children to school. (February 2019)
The cascade is high
Many outbreaks have spread across the region over the past decade, destabilizing countries and sending waves of weapons into villages, towns, and cities. In the country of Nigeria, Boko Haram flourished where they controlled, and attacked the countries of Cameroon, Chad, and Niger.
Small arms in an unexploded ordnance crater at a Malian Army base in Timbuktu, Mali.
First of all Business in the Sahel features, we describe the 2011 NATO intervention in Libya as an important period. Tuareg soldiers serving in the Libyan army stole weapons, returned to Mali, where several rebellions have created a dangerous, chaotic security vacuum.
Militant groups take over Mali’s military and police bases, adding new weapons to their expanding arsenal. The Liptako-Gourma transborder region became a battleground and trading ground for the illegal arms trade.
Chronic violence has killed thousands and displaced more than two million Sahelians, as of December 2022.
Meanwhile, the ongoing conflict in Sudan has caused further disruptions, said Mar Dieye, who heads the UN Integrated Strategy Committee for the Sahel (UNISS).
“The soldiers are selling their guns to get food, and this will add fuel to the fire,” he said UN News. “This is very important, and we call on all international players to increase their support.”
Women tend a market garden in Tillaberi. Niger, located in the Liptako-Gourma region, has been strongly affected by regional conflicts and the establishment of conflict in Mali and Burkina Faso.
African-style terrorism
Against this backdrop sits the ever-present threat of terrorism, according to the UN Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTED).
In order to appeal to the local audience, the affiliates of the Islamic State (ISIL) have, since 2017, tried to “Africanize” references and languages, using African literature to justify the views of the terrorist group, CTED said. in your report. ISIL in Africa: Major Trends and Developments.
Currently, the Lake Chad Basin and the Central Sahel have emerged as bases and incubators of terrorism and violent crime, authorities warn.
After all, the illegal arms trade is causing the chaos. The UNODC report shows that the flow of illegal weapons from Libya since 2019 has increased with newly manufactured assault rifles.
A MINUSMA armored vehicle in Aguelhock, Mali.
Partners against crime
Reflecting this bad trend, weapons seizures increased by 105 percent between 2017 and 2021, and sting operations continue, said Amado Philip de Andrès, UNODC regional representative for West and Central Africa.
Joint investigations and cross-border cooperation are a winning combination, he said. One such operation broke the terrorist network’s arms supply route in December, and new partnerships are growing, including Niger’s military cooperation agreements with Benin and Burkina Faso.
Firearms, ammunition and explosives were seized by INTERPOL across the Sahel.
To fight terrorism and violent crime, concerned countries in the region launched the Accra Initiative in 2017, implementing joint operations, initiating building trust efforts in hotspot areas, and calling for operating a combined national force of 10,000 soldiers.
For its part, the UN and regional countries are working to strengthen the stabilization of border areas and facilitate the return of displaced people. Progress in advancing the African Union’s Firearms Initiative is also underway, with a UN working group supporting the annual Amnesty Month and providing technical assistance on small arms control.
To build on these successes, UNODC recommends that Sahel countries intensify efforts to collect data on arms trafficking to improve understanding and stop intra- and inter-national flows.
But, the political support and action of partners is also important to stabilize the region, said Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, UN Assistant Secretary-General for Africa.
He said: “Continuous progress in the fight against terrorism, violent extremism, and organized crime in the Sahel must be taken into account. Without significant opportunities, it will be more difficult to change the security approach in the Sahel and the progress of insecurity to the coastal countries in West Africa.”
A UN peacekeeper with weapons seized from the armed forces in Côte d’Ivoire.
We are all Burkinabes
The decline of the illegal arms trade is felt most strongly on the ground. In the village of Bolle, Burkina Faso, a fragile security landscape collapsed in terror in 2019, when fierce fighting between armed groups in the Mali border area has moved more than 100,000 people to the area to seek protection.
Sahel citizens like Chief Diambendi Madiega have worked together to welcome as many as they can.
“The concern I have is how to take care of displaced people,” he said, when he received the UN Refugee Agency, UNHCR, grant in 2021 for hosting more than 2,500 people.
He explained: “The responsibility is mine. “Whatever I can do to help them, I will. I am happy for what this community has done. This shows that we are all Burkinabe. “
Burkina Faso: It convinced communities to share their land with displaced people
HE is the action
The UN, partners, and the Sahelian people themselves working for peace in the Sahel are making strides and introducing new efforts, including these:
- The United Nations adopted a framework for the release, destruction, and reintegration of ex-combatants.
- The UN Regional Center for Peace and Development in Africa (UNREC) and the UN Development Program (UNDP), in a joint project, assisted nine countries of the Sahelian region in adopting a regional action plan to combat the arms trade of it’s not right.
- UNDP facilitated the voluntary surrender of more than 40,000 small arms and light weapons in West Africa, built more than 300 houses, nearly 300 stores, and hospitals and schools. in northeastern Nigeria, and provide livelihoods for young people to protect them from going into poverty or being recruited into violent extremism.
- The UN Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) supports the G5 Sahel Force region in a project that focuses on criminal justice, border security management, and preventing radical and violent terrorism.
- The United Nations Children’s Program (UNICEF) helps young people learn about the dangers of small arms, combining gun safety education with leadership development, vocational training, and conflict resolution strategies.
- UN regional leaders and UNOWAS approved in November the launch of a revised “peace and security grant” for the Sahel and work with the Timbuktu Institute and non-governmental organization Dialogue sans frontières on an initiative that aims to strengthen traditional dialogues and trust-building platforms between communities in the border regions of Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger.
