Citation(s) from the GunPolicy.org literature library
Florquin, Nicolas, Sigrid Lipott, and Francis Wairagu. 2019 ‘Excerpts on Trafficking - Niger.’ 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
CAR reported the proliferation of Turkish-made semi-automatic shotguns and convertible blank-firing pistols manufactured between 2012 and 2016 on black markets or in the context of weapons seizures in northern Somalia, northern Niger, and northern/south-eastern Nigeria. The weapons observed in Somalia and Nigeria matched the specific types/models of weapons that were intercepted in 2017 as part of large illicit maritime shipments to each country. (pp. 47-49)
In Chad and Niger sizeable convoys of combatants and weapons were regularly intercepted between 2011 and 2013 transiting to other countries such as Mali and Sudan. Among the looted materiel, hundreds—if not thousands—of man-portable air defence systems capable of downing commercial airliners escaped from state control, with many subsequently being retrieved in Libya and several others in Mali, Tunisia, Lebanon, and possibly as far as the Central African Republic. (p. 50)
More diverse trafficking dynamics are now at play to supply the demand for weapons in the subregion. Trafficking from Libya persists, but on a much more limited scale. In northern Chad and Niger, for instance, it has recently consisted primarily of small numbers of individual weapons being smuggled to supply local demand. (p. 50)
Diversions from national stockpiles remain a primary concern in other countries in the Sahel–Sahara and beyond. Boko Haram has carried out attacks in Cameroon, Niger, and Nigeria that aimed specifically at capturing equipment from these countries' state forces. (p. 50)
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)