Sub-regional instability, conflict, the emergence of armed groups, the deterioration of law and order, and armed criminality have all contributed to the proliferation and illicit circulation of small arms and light weapons in Côte d’Ivoire. The presence of a substantial number of weapons means that violent incidents now have much more serious consequences.
In early March, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) and its leader Joseph Kony became global talking points after a video posted on the Internet by the US-based NGO Invisible Children went viral.
‘Kony2012’, which was viewed more than 100 million times, was designed to generate popular pressure for Kony’s arrest.
Despite the official conclusion of the second Sudanese civil war, conflict has persisted across large parts of South Sudan, some of it fuelled from outside the country’s ill-defined borders. Local armed conflicts, exacerbated by an abundance of small arms, continue to cost lives and disrupt communities. Men are almost exclusively the perpetrators of the violence, but women, as well as children and the elderly, make up many—and in some cases, the majority—of the victims.
This Issue Brief reviews arms flows and holdings among both state and non-state armed forces as of early 2012, situating recent developments against historical trends and patterns of supply. It updates a previous HSBA report on small arms and light weapons flows and holdings in Sudan from December 2009.
Weapons tracing is a set of methods used to identify weapons and ammunition and track their origins. It has an established role in criminal investigations, where it is typically used not only to prove a firearm-related offence, but also to uncover the source of illicit supplies to criminals. By contrast, weapons tracing in conflict and post-conflict situations—for example, by peace support operations (PSOs)— remains a matter of theory, not practice.
Introduction How to stop a criminal from removing the identifying marks on a polymerframe handgun? This was the kind of question asked, and sometimes answered, at the Open-ended Meeting of Governmental Experts (MGE),1 convened at UN headquarters in New York from 9 to 13 May 2011. For the first time at a UN small arms meeting, the discussions were expert-led and relatively interactive as delegations focused on the practical details of weapons marking, record-keeping, and tracing, specifically as dealt with in the International Tracing Instrument (ITI) (UNGA, 2005).
The UN calendar for 2012 includes important markers in international arms control, with eight weeks of UN meetings assigned to two separate processes: the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT) and the UN Programme of Action to Prevent, Combat and Eradicate the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All Its Aspects (PoA).
Considerable attention has been paid to the threats posed by small arms and light weapons proliferation and misuse, but far less is known about the dangers inherent in poorly stored or mishandled munitions.1 A single unplanned explosion at a munitions site can claim dozens of lives, injure hundreds, and displace thousands of people. The damage to infrastructure can be extensive, covering many square kilometres. In addition, the loss of economic activity can exceed tens of millions of dollars and have long-term ramifications on livelihoods and the environment.
During 2011 there were 46 reports of unplanned explosions at munitions sites (UEMS) globally, up from an average of 32 for each of the preceding four years. The Small Arms Survey's online UEMS resource, which tracks these incidents, is now updated to include events through to the end of January 2012.
Landmines have been used in South Sudan for decades. During the conflict between north and south, both the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the Sudan People’s Liberation Army (SPLA) planted thousands of landmines to secure their military positions. Today, mines buried during the war terrorize local populations, who often live close to areas that have not yet been cleared. The problem has been exacerbated by rebel militia groups who planted new anti-personnel (AP) and anti-tank (AT) mines on roads in Unity and, to a lesser extent, in Jonglei last year.
About 66,000 women and girls are violently killed every year, accounting for approximately 17 per cent of all victims of intentional homicides. While the data on which these conservative estimates are based is incomplete, it does reveal certain patterns with respect to the male v. female victim ratio in homicides, intimate partner violence, and the use of firearms in femicides— defined here as ‘the killing of a woman’. This Research Note examines lethal forms of violence against women.
After renewed international support for the Doha peace talks in March–May 2011, the Liberation and Justice Movement (LJM) and the Government of Sudan (GoS) signed the Doha Document for Peace in Darfur (DDPD) on 14 July 2011, just five days after South Sudan officially became independent. The Sudan Liberation Army-Minni Minawi (SLA-MM), the Sudan Liberation Army-Abdul Wahid (SLA-AW), and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) did not sign the agreement.
At the military level in the field, all the Darfur rebel factions are cooperating, exhibiting a pragmatic survival instinct that is rallying the disparate militias against their common enemies. The Sudanese government has stepped up hostilities since early 2011, focusing on the Sudan Liberation Army-Abdul Wahid (SLA-AW) stronghold of Jebel Marra and the Zaghawa-held areas of North and South Darfur such as Shangal Tobaiya, where SLA-Minni Minawi (SLA-MM) draws strength.
The Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) was established early in 2003 by a group of educated, politically experienced Darfurians, many of them former members of the Popular Congress Party (PCP) of Hassan al Turabi, architect of Sudan’s Islamic revolution. Most of its leaders and membership initially came from the Kobe tribe, a Zaghawa sub-group more numerous in Chad than in Darfur. Since 2007 JEM has worked actively to recruit Darfurian Arabs, including from government-supported militias or ‘janjaweed’.
Despite the official end of war in South Sudan, women’s well-being and security remain under constant threat. The fledgling country has promised to ensure equality and rights for all, yet its very laws are often a source of insecurity for women.
By 22 February 2012, at least 30 US military advisers were based in the town of Obo in the Central African Republic (CAR). The Americans set up base away from the Ugandan barracks in the town, in an effort, perhaps, to distance themselves from the increasingly unpopular Ugandan troops. An NGO worker said generally poor behaviour by some Ugandan soldiers, who were seen drunk and with prostitutes in public, coupled with scant LRA activity in the area have caused friction with local communities. Some officials have even called on the Ugandans to leave.
Relations between South Sudan and Sudan have steadily worsened over the last month. South Sudan shut down oil production on 22 January, following a stalemate in negotiations over oil transit fees.
In July 2012, UN member states will meet to negotiate a legally binding international instrument governing the transfer of conventional arms: the Arms Trade Treaty (ATT). The ATT initiative represents an important and timely step in the global struggle against illicit arms transfers and signifies that the issue of arms transfer controls has risen to the top of the UN agenda.
The internal regulations of armed groups are crucial tools for exercising control over the actions of fighters and can determine the ultimate success or failure of an insurgent organization. They also have an effect on a group’s respect for international humanitarian law and human rights, as well as on the incidence of armed violence in a group’s area of operations.
