Last month, Nigeria's federal government announced that it would be revamping its Committee on Small Arms and Light Weapons. Its goal in doing so is to halt the proliferation of small arms in Nigeria and its neighboring nations in order to weaken the fighting power of Boko Haram, a Jihadist military group in Africa that has alleged itself with ISIS. In order to accomplish this, Nigeria seeks to coordinate with its neighbors, such as Chad and Niger, since they are labeling this proliferation as a region issue.
This article further describes some of the existing platforms that Nigeria is seeking to base their efforts on, but doesn't strongly review what specific measures might be taken to combat small arms proliferation. What kind of actions do you think can and should be taken to tackle this issue?
In order to put this committee to full use, Germany recommends a globally connected system to ensure cooperation between all nations wanting to lessen small arms proliferation in Africa. It is not only in African countries' interests to focus on this issue, but it is the whole world's.
ReplyDeleteMany countries outside of the continent of Africa depend on its countries for trade. South Africa is the world's biggest producer of gold and diamonds. Nigeria specializes in oil. Palm oil, cocoa, and timber are among Africa's main exports.
However, Africa is struggling to keep up with the demands within their own country and other countries because of the internal outbreaks that take place daily. These outbreaks are worsened by the proliferation of small arms.
Our country has been one of Africa's main investors and partners. We trade regularly with the continent, and hope to see it thrive and reach its full potential. Its countries can't do that when guns are flooding cities and towns and killing their citizens.
Germany believes the best way to tackle this issue is through cooperation and tracking SALW other than just small arms. Explosives are just as much of an issue as guns. Ammunition is also necessary to track because guns are useless without them. If we can track down and record all these hazards, we can finally start seeing change in their proliferation.