UN fires warning on runaway arms trade and Africa conflicts

A UN resolution on use of force in the Central African Republic, where armed groups terrorise citizens, is ‘in the making.’ Photo/FILE 

By JOINT REPORT The EastAfrican

In Summary

• UN Deputy Secretary-General: Illicit arms trade has reached alarming rates in Africa, especially in the cases of Nigeria, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic, largely explaining the unending conflicts in those countries.

The United Nations is considering tougher sanctions on the arms trade in Africa that has left sophisticated weaponry in the hands of terror and rebel groups.

At the same time, the world body is seeking to transform some of its peacekeeping deployments in Africa into war-fighting brigades.

Jan Eliasson, UN Deputy Secretary-General, said last week that the illicit arms trade has reached alarming rates in Africa, especially in the cases of Nigeria, Somalia, Democratic Republic of Congo and Central African Republic, largely explaining the unending conflicts in those countries.

Mr Eliasson’s comments came as the UN sounded an alarm over worsening violence in Sudan’s Darfur region and the CAR, with the UN Security Council demanding the strengthening of the Darfur peacekeeping mission.

READ: ‘Almost all Darfuris’ suffering effects of 11 years of war, UNSC says

In a resolution adopted unanimously on April 3, the 15-member council urged the UN-African Union joint mission in Darfur, known as Unamid, to “move to a more preventive and pre-emptive posture in pursuit of its priorities and in active defence of its mandate.”

That wording is seen as a go-ahead for Unamid to adopt more aggressive tactics. The council’s action on Darfur sharpens the focus on a broader and potentially historic shift in UN operations in conflict zones in Africa.

The UN’s traditional role of attempting to separate warring parties and prevent violence is giving way, in some cases, to combat initiatives intended to weaken or defeat groups perceived as “spoilers.”

First intervention brigade

This new military posture was first adopted a year ago in the DRC, with the Security Council authorising establishment of a 3,000-member “intervention brigade.”

Consisting of troops supplied by Tanzania, South Africa and Malawi, this combat component of the UN operation known as Monusco scored a strategic victory over a rebel force that had been terrorising parts of the eastern DRC.

That breakthrough has encouraged some diplomats and UN officials to press for a similar transformation of UN missions in other strife-plagued African countries.

It emerged last week, for example, that a resolution on UN use of force in the Central African Republic is “in the making.” Council members appear convinced that the current African Union force in CAR, along with French troops also deployed there, cannot stem the violence that has destroyed the country.

Efforts to stabilise the CAR were dealt a potential setback last week when Chad—one of the key players in the AU operation there—said it would withdraw its troops. The Chadian forces are facing claims of supporting Muslim rebels.

As a corollary to its moves to quell violence in Africa, “the UN is tightening the grip on the transfer of small arms and light weapons particularly to non-state actors,” said Maged Abdelaziz, the UN Under-Secretary-General and Special Adviser on Africa.