In this feature, part of a series exploring the fight against human trafficking in the Sahel, UN News focuses on the illegal arms trade that is fueling conflict and terrorism.
In the Sahel, home to 300 million people, it’s a buyer’s market for guns. Rebellion and looting raged in the region, stemming from, among other things, tensions between endemic communities, conflicts between farmers and herders, the spread of religious extremism, and the spread of religious extremism. violence and competition for scarce resources such as water and arable land between extreme climate shocks.
“Non-State groups are fighting with each other for supremacy, pushing States to the margins and causing countless sufferings for millions of people who have to suffer,” said Giovanie Biha, Office of the United Nations Office. flee their communities in search of safety. for West Africa and the Sahel (SURPRISE), speak United Nations Security Councilpresent the opinion of the Secretary-General report on the area.
Arms trade flows into the Sahel
‘We bought more rifles’
Behind the chaos and suffering is a thriving illegal arms trade.
Many of the arms-trafficking hubs on the border of the Sahel belt or shipping lanes carry a lot of criminal activity, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime).UNODC). Illegal markets – often hidden in towns and villages along strategic corridors – are not hindered by the presence of the government.
According to a recent UNODC report, all groups involved in the clashes are currently dealing with weapons and ammunition. report on the arms trade. As the number of group members increases, so do business opportunities for traffickers.
The case tracking report aims to better understand this phenomenon and its drivers. When Nigerian authorities asked a suspect how his team spent $100,000 in ransom to free the schoolgirls they kidnapped, he said “we bought more rifles”, according to the report.
Fleeing her village in northern Cameroon after armed rebels took control, Mamma Hamidou (centre) received income-generating funding from UNDP and with the proceeds built a house small house and send children to school. (February 2019)
Chain of consequences
A cascade of consequences has swept through the region over the past decade, destabilizing nations and spreading the tide of the arms trade into villages, towns and cities. In Nigeria, Boko Haram has expanded its control area and infiltrated CameronChad and Niger.
Small arms ammunition at an unexploded bomb crater at Malian Army Camp in Timbuktu, Mali.
inside Firstly Later Trade in the Sahel We describe the 2011 NATO intervention in Libya as a pivotal moment. Tuareg soldiers serving in the Libyan army looted weapons and returned to Mali, where a series of uprisings created a dangerous, chaotic security vacuum.
Extremist groups have taken over Malian’s military and police bases, adding a new arsenal to their expanding arsenal. The Liptako-Gourma The cross-border area has become a battleground and barter for the burgeoning illegal arms trade.
Chronic violence has killed thousands and displaced more than two million Sahelans to date. December 2022.
Meanwhile, going on conflict in Sudan caused further disruption, said Mar Dieye, head of the United Nations Integrated Strategy for the Sahel (university).
“Soldiers are selling their guns for food, and this will add fuel to the fire,” he said. UN News. “This is extremely serious and we are calling on all international participants to scale up their support.”
Women tending to the market garden in Tillaberi. Niger, located in the Liptako-Gourma region, has been hit hard by local conflicts and the spread of fighting in Mali and Burkina Faso.
terrorism suitable for Africa
Against this backdrop, the threat of terrorism is always present, according to the Executive Board of the United Nations Security Council Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTED).
In an effort to appeal to a local audience, since 2017 affiliates of the Islamic State (ISIL) have attempted to “Africanize” references and languages, using African literature to justifies the terrorist group’s views, CTED said in its report. ISIL in Africa: Key trends and developments.
Currently, the basins of Lake Chad and Central Sahel have emerged as epicenter and incubator of terrorism and violent extremismwarning authorities.
Against this backdrop, the illegal arms trade perpetuated the chaos. The UNODC report shows that the influx of illegal weapons from Libya since 2019 has expanded to include newly manufactured assault rifles.
A MINUSMA armored vehicle in Aguelhock, Mali.
Crime partner
Reflecting this diabolical trend, arms seizures have increased by 105% between 2017 and 2021, and stinging activities remain, said Amado Philip de Andrès, UNODC’s regional representative for West and Central Africa. continue.
“Joint investigations and cross-border cooperation are a winning combination,” he said. such one work crushed the weapons supply route of a terrorist network in December and new partnership flourishing, including Niger’s military cooperation agreements with Benin and Burkina Faso.
INTERPOL has seized guns, ammunition and explosives across the Sahel.
To combat terrorism and violent extremism, the countries involved in the region launched the Accra Initiative in 2017, launching joint operations, initiating confidence-building efforts. in flashpoint areas and called for the operation of a multinational joint task force of 10,000 troops.
For their part, the UN and countries in the region work to strengthen the resilience of border communities and facilitate the repatriation of displaced persons. The push in pushing the African Union’s groundbreaking initiative Banning Gunfire is also underway, with a United Nations task force supporting a annual amnesty month and lending technical assistance on small arms control.
To build on these successes, UNODC recommends that Sahel countries increase their efforts to collect data on the arms trade to improve understanding and prevent national and transnational flows.
The United Nations Assistant Secretary-General for Africa, Martha Ama Akyaa Pobee, said the political and operational support of partners remained essential to stabilizing the region.
Decisive progress in the fight against terrorism, violent extremism and organized crime in the Sahel must be made desperately, she said. speak. “Without significant gains, it will become increasingly difficult to reverse the security trajectory in the Sahel and insecurity continues to spread to the coastal states of West Africa.”
A UN peacekeeper with weapons obtained from militiamen in Côte d’Ivoire.
‘We are all Burkinans’
The backlash of the illegal arms trade is felt most strongly on the ground. In the village of Bolle, Burkina Faso, a fragile security scene fell fearlessly in 2019, when fierce fighting between heavily armed groups along the Malian border sent more than 100,000 people to the area. this area to seek safety.
Sahelians like Chief Diambendi Madiega worked together to welcome as many people as possible.
“My concern is how to take care of the displaced people,” he said, addressing the United Nations Refugee Agency, UNHCR, reward in 2021 to accommodate more than 2,500 people.
“The responsibility is mine,” he explained. “Anything I can do to help them, I will do. I’m so happy for what this community has done. This shows that we are all Burkinans.”
Burkina Faso: He convinced communities to share their land with the displaced
UN in action
The United Nations, its partners and the Sahel people themselves working for peace in the Sahel are infiltrating and launching new efforts, including:
- The United Nations peacekeeping force adopted a strategy to disarm, demobilize and reintegrate veterans.
- The United Nations Regional Center for Peace and Disarmament in Africa (UNREC) and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), in a joint cooperation projectsupported nine Sahelian countries through a regional action plan to combat illegal arms trade.
- UNDP has facilitated the voluntary surrender of more than 40,000 small arms and light weapons in West Africa, built more than 300 houses, nearly 300 stalls in markets, clinics and schools in northeastern Nigeria, and provide livelihoods for young people to protect them from falling into poverty or poverty. recruited into violent extremism.
- United Nations Office on Terrorism (UNOCT) support the G5 Sahel Force in the region project focuses on criminal justice, border security management, and prevention of extremism and violent extremism.
- A United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) program that helps young people learn about the dangers of small arms, combining basic gun safety education with leadership development, job training, and problem solving. resolve conflict.
- The United Nations and UNOWAS regional directors approved in November the launch of an improved “proposal for peace and security” for the Sahel and work with the Timbuktu Institute and NGO Dialogue Without Borders on a initiative to strengthen the traditional dialogue and trust-building foundation between communities in the border regions of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.
