Surrounded by international locations in battle, the cross-border space has change into a hub for gun-running.

Northern Cameroon has for many years been a hub for ammunition, small arms and light-weight weapons trafficking within the Sahel. The issue has fuelled regional insecurity since 1980. In response, states of the Lake Chad Basin Fee created the Multinational Joint Process Drive in 1994.

However arms trafficking has worsened since Boko Haram’s emergence and enlargement into Cameroon in 2013. Previously decade, Cameroon’s defence forces have seized and destroyed over 3 000 weapons and gadgets of army gear.

Northern Cameroon covers the Far North, North and Adamawa areas, which kind a part of the Sahelian belt. This a part of Cameroon shares borders with Nigeria, Chad and the Central African Republic (CAR), and experiences a number of smuggling and trafficking.

Attributable to numerous insurrections, Nigeria has change into fertile floor for the manufacture of selfmade weapons. In Chad, quite a few conflicts because the Nineteen Seventies – together with rebellions and reversals of political energy – have led to a proliferation of small arms.

Weapons cross by means of corridors used for illicit commerce, migratory flows and transhumance

Coupled with numerous types of violent extremism, the rise up of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of the Sahara, which developed through the Nineteen Nineties in Niger’s Diffa and Agadez areas, bordering Chad, additionally elevated the circulation of weapons. And Chad’s proximity to Libya, which has been bothered by civil conflict over a number of a long time, has exacerbated the issue.

Cross-border space in Northern Cameroon

Supply : ISS

(Click on on the map for full dimension picture)

The CAR, for its half, is experiencing a protracted cycle of socio-political instability. Between 2004 and 2014, the teams concerned within the nation’s three bloody civil wars engaged in intense arms trafficking. However regardless of a 2013 United Nations Safety Council arms embargo, weapons proceed circulating.

Institute for Safety Research analysis reveals that weapons cross by means of corridors used for illicit commerce, migratory flows and transhumance. To achieve Boko Haram in Nigeria, weapons from Chad cross by means of the nation’s capital N’Djamena, and are then smuggled by means of Kousseri and Fotokol in Cameroon. Or they cross by means of Cameroon’s Mora and surrounding areas.

Weapons are additionally leaving Boko Haram strongholds to gasoline insecurity in Northern Cameroon. Their route follows an axis between Gwoza in Nigeria, and Mayo-Tsanaga and Mayo-Louti or Bénoué in Cameroon.

Weapons from Chad and CAR, used for kidnappings for ransom in Cameroon’s Northern and Adamaoua areas, cross by means of Touboro and Garoua-Boulaï. Traffickers bringing in arms from Niger and Sudan use the cross-border transhumance routes, many converging in the direction of Cameroon’s north.

Cameroon’s 2016 regulation must be amended to allow harsher penalties for arms trafficking

Traffickers use numerous means to move weapons. Some pose as merchants, hiding weapons in items, particularly cereal baggage. Others disguise themselves as transporters of products and folks, hiding weapons of their autos. Many nomads transferring in and between the international locations talked about above are additionally arms smugglers.

These weapons add to the area’s insecurity. They contribute to present neighborhood conflicts – notably disputes between farmers and breeders, indigenous and non-native populations, inheritance conflicts and spiritual antagonisms.

Pressing measures are wanted to curb the issue. A 2016 Cameroonian law imposes three months to 2 years’ imprisonment for arms trafficking. In 2018, Cameroon hosted the convention of the Central African states get together to the Kinshasa Convention for the management of small arms and light-weight weapons. Cameroon and Nigeria additionally met in September 2022 to debate collaborating to fight the issue.

On the bottom, defence and safety forces have managed to grab weapons throughout their operations. Nevertheless, confronted with the rising scale of the issue, this isn’t sufficient. Cameroon’s 2016 regulation must be amended to allow harsher penalties for arms trafficking. And larger political dedication is required to translate suggestions from conferences into motion.

Area people committees should assist acquire details about the circulation of weapons

Concrete steps should be taken at nationwide, regional and interregional ranges. On the nationwide stage, Cameroon and its neighbouring international locations should strengthen their insurance policies towards arms trafficking by imposing more durable measures. Along with elevating the alarm within the occasion of a safety menace, area people committees should assist acquire details about the circulation of weapons.

On the regional stage, the gendarmes, police, army, ecoguards and customs officers from Cameroon, Nigeria, Chad and CAR want a major enhance in logistical capability. In addition they want a collaborative mechanism that permits fast response and coordination of joint actions to cease arms trafficking.

Lastly, on the interregional stage, the advert hoc committees in command of the difficulty, such because the Multinational Joint Process Drive or the Brazzaville Convention, should share classes on what works.

Célestin Delanga, Researcher, ISS Regional Workplace for West Africa, the Sahel and the Lake Chad Basin

Picture © UN Photograph