Citation(s) from the GunPolicy.org literature library
Florquin, Nicolas, Sigrid Lipott, and Francis Wairagu. 2019 ‘Excerpts on Trafficking - Kenya.’ Weapons Compass: Mapping Illicit Small Arms Flows in Africa, pp. 42-59. Geneva: Small Arms Survey, the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, Geneva. 1 January
Relevant contents
In contrast, smaller-scale ant trafficking can involve a wider variety of actors, often including members of local border communities. Ethnic connections between pastoralist groups across borders facilitate cross-border trafficking: the Turkana of Kenya, Dodoth of Uganda, and Toposa of South Sudan, for instance, have traded arms across the three countries' borders, including AK-pattern and HK G3 rifles, in order to arm themselves to protect their cattle. (p. 41)
The proliferation of readily convertible imitation firearms was initially particularly significant in Northern Africa, and notably in Libya, where both merchants and end users, including armed groups, are converting them. Major shipments of readily convertible alarm weapons were intercepted from Turkey in or on their way to Djibouti, Egypt, Libya, Somalia, and Sudan. This included the previously mentioned seizure of no less than 25,000 Turkish alarm pistols in 2017 at the Port of Kismayo, Somalia. From these locations they appear to have been smuggled by land and seized in converted form in a range of neighbouring countries, including in Kenya, Niger, and Somalia. Other Small Arms Survey inquiries have revealed the circulation of imitation handguns in Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Chad, Ghana, Guinea, Mauritania, and Zimbabwe. (pp. 58-59)