اتجار النمل في إفريقيا: الحجم والمسالك والأثر وجهود المكافحة

Abstract EN

There are many routes to the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons in Africa.

Although less is known about these weapons than what is known about conventional or non-conventional weapons, the trade in them in an ant manner, on top of that, has not received sufficient research attention.

The “ant trade” is considered one of the most dangerous forms of illicit trade in small arms and light weapons, and although it is carried out on a small scale, over time, large numbers of them accumulate among unauthorized end users.

And the term ant trade is not limited to the arms trade only, but it is generalized to all illegal commercial activities such as the cocaine trade and others.

In general, non-state armed groups in Africa own 80% of all small arms on the continent according to 2018 estimates.

With their concentration in the west and north of the continent, pistols, hand-made weapons, military-style long guns, imitation convertible pistols, poaching rifles and submachine guns were the most prevalent among civilians.

For the purposes of protecting livestock, burglary or sources of livelihood.

The majority of illegal weapons circulating between armed groups in conflict areas were military rifles and light weapons systems.

The majority of them were produced in the seventies, eighties and nineties of the last century, coming from countries such as the former Soviet Union, China and some European countries, with the United States, Italy and Germany in recent exports.

The supply of warring governments to allied groups, inadequate regulations, a lack of political will to enforce legal and border controls, and the proliferation of transnational smuggling groups are the main reasons for this trade.

Overland routes are by public and private carriers, motorbikes are the most common means of transportation, and in some cases small boats, or by mail.

Trade is active in the way of the ants in the south and north of the Niger River, the south-central region of Somalia, the Niger border with Mali, Libya and other regions.

The trade in light weapons in general, and in the manner of ants in particular, has direct and indirect costs, the direct ones being the loss of lives; It is responsible for 50 % of violent deaths in the world between 2010 and 2015, and Africa records 140,000 deaths and crimes related to armed conflict annually, a third of them due to the popularity of these weapons, and not the events of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo, which the majority of victims of which fell with light weapons far from us, and occupied Libya ranks fifth in the world in losses resulting from terrorist activities, as its treasury has incurred nearly $5 billion as a result of terrorist acts in the 12 years since 2011.

In addition to the indirect costs due to the proliferation of light weapons represented in the disruption of development, loss of productivity and capital flight.

However, the efforts made are insufficient, whether at the international, regional, subregional, or national levels.

In fact, international instruments did not explicitly mention ant trade in international instruments.