On November 29, 2022, President Muhammadu Buhari told the summit of leaders of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC) that influx of weapons and fighters from the Russia-Ukraine war is now fueling the Boko Haram/Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) terrorism in the Lake Chad Basin region.
President Buhari said: “Regrettably, the situation in the Sahel and the raging war in Ukraine serve as major sources of weapons and fighters that bolster the ranks of the terrorists in Lake Chad Region. Weapons being used for the war in Ukraine and Russia are equally beginning to filter to the region.”
Indeed, the member-nations of LCBC – Nigeria, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Niger Republic, Republic of Benin, Chad and Libya – are already awash with weapons. In April last year, former Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar, said there are over six million weapons in Nigeria alone.
A report by Conflict Armament Research (CAR), an investigative organisation that tracks the movement of weapons, ammunition and explosives into conflict areas shows that 17 per cent of the weapons seized from Boko Haram-linked rebels in southeastern Niger were diverted from the stockpiles in Chad, Niger and Nigeria.
These weapons add to the stockpiles illegally trafficked into or through Libya, battlefield losses from raids on security forces in Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger and Nigeria, smuggled handguns and shotguns sold on the black market and diversion of legally imported firearms and explosives within the region.
And with the new route and inflow of more lethal weapons from the Russian-Ukraine war, the situation is alarming.
This is not helped by the large swaths of unmanned, illegal and porous borders and booming business of gun-running in the region. The increase in arms proliferation across Nigeria and the entire Lake Chad no doubt plays an undeniable role in perpetuating violence from criminal related activities by non-State actors which are destabilising peace, development and security.
Therefore, as President Buhari noted at the LCBC summit: “There is therefore, the urgent need for expedited collaborative actions by our border control agencies and other security services to stop the circulation of all illegal weapons in the region.”
Towards this, the African Union (AU) and States of the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin should establish a common platform where all parties should be part of tracking and tracing illegal weapons especially the Russia and U.S./NATO supplied light and heavy weapons.
There should also be a strengthening of joint border-control measures and law enforcement action to intercept those weapons.
Also, improving regional security in Nigeria and the entire Lake Chad region is a task that requires all stakeholders. While there is need for more surveillance by LCBC Air Forces, the Multi-national Joint Force (MNJTF) should sustain its land operations by recovering more weapons and military materials as it recently did in the islands of Lake Chad. There should be sharing of information between the LCBC nations with US and French surveillance operational centres to track and intercept the flow of these weapons.
It is also imperative that other nations make deliberate effort to help Niger Republic block the flow of these arms and ammunition as reports indicate that the country serves as a primary transit nation used by traffickers, using the Northern border with Libya’s South-western border, the Salvador Pass and the age-old trans-Sahelian trade routes.
There is also need by LCBC nations to streamline their national and regional Weapons and Arms Management (WAM). This is important because while Niger and Nigeria are members of ECOWAS, Chad and Cameroon are members of ECCAS.
In additions, Russia and the US/NATO allies should take full responsibility and be ready to hold each other to stringently account for weapons they are throwing into the theatre of war. After all, they are the world’s major arms manufacturers who are also recruiting mercenaries who help in trafficking weapons of war.
The Armed Forces of Nigeria (AFN) and other security agencies must scale up their operations and stop this proliferation of weapons. And as Nigeria heads to the 2023 elections, the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW) should be proactive and tackle the challenges by mopping up illicit arms and ammunition. It has recovered and destroyed over 3,000 illegal arms across the country. But it should do much more.