Wilder Alejandro Sanchez and Scott Morgan
International Policy Digest
June 28, 2019
Originally published: https://intpolicydigest.org/2019/06/28/africa-arms-sales-global-geopolitics-and-security-threats/
There is plenty going on in Africa these days, such as regime change and repression in Sudan; violence and internal instability in Ethiopia; a deadly outbreak of Ebola across the Democratic Republic of Congo and beyond; never-ending violence in Somalia, just to name a few.
In this commentary, we will discuss some important
developments that should be monitored more closely, particularly
regarding weapons transfers and the Sahel region.
Africa’s major weapons importers
According to the most recent data provided by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI),
between 2009-13 and 2014-18, there was a decline in arms sales to
Africa by a total of 6.5%. States in sub-Saharan Africa received 25% of
the total arms shipments in the aforementioned timeframes, with the top
five importers being Nigeria, Angola, Sudan, Cameroon, and Senegal. Data
from the Small Arms Survey shows that in 2015 other countries that received major arms shipments include Cote d’Ivoire, Malawi, Namibia, and Uganda.
Weapons sales do not occur in a vacuum, hence it is necessary to take
into account the security situation of these countries. For example,
two countries (Nigeria and Cameroon) are facing insurgencies, one
(Sudan) has just recently had a long-entrenched leader removed by a
military faction, and a fourth (Angola) borders a country in perpetual
crisis (the Democratic Republic of the Congo). Hence, we can expect
these governments to increase the procurement of weaponry in the coming
years in order to face ongoing security threats.
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