West Africa Formally Bans Trade in Illegal Weapons

Posted: 21 June 2006

ECOWAS makes permanent a moratorium on the trafficking of small arms and light weapons.

The Economic Community of West African States announced on June 14 that it had approved a new Convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons, a legal instrument designed to stop the illegal trafficking of weapons in the region.

The Convention serves to make permanent a 1998 temporary moratorium on the weapons trade in West Africa, a step urged on the body by the members of the Control Arms Campaign, including Oxfam, Amnesty International, and the International Action Network on Small Arms.

The West Africa Action Network on Small Arms (WAANSA) in Ghana welcomed the announcement in a statement, noting that the illegal trade in weapons has contributed to the death of two million West Africans in the last decade.

Conflicts in Liberia, Sierra Leone, Côte d’Ivoire, Senegal, Guinea Bissau, as well as low level communal violence in other countries have been fueled by the ready availability of weapons. “National governments can now harmonize their domestic legislations on arms and ammunition…with a view to enhancing peace, security, and development in the sub-region,” WAANSA secretary Afi Yakubu said in the statement.

Oxfam supported the Control Arms campaign in West Africa with grants to key civil society organizations in the region. Oxfam also provided training in media relations, advocacy, and popular mobilization techniques to help build public support for the ECOWAS Convention.

These groups are now turning their attention to advocating for national laws that support the ECOWAS Convention, and urging governments to support an international arms trade ban through the United Nations.

Mamadou Biteye, acting director for Oxfam America in West Africa, said “The ECOWAS Convention is good, and we congratulate the member states, but it is not sufficient. Each country has to bring its own laws into line with the Convention. And at the international level we would like to see the United Nations prioritize an international arms trade ban.”

News of the ECOWAS Convention comes on the eve of the United Nations conference to review progress in the global effort to eliminate the illegal trade in small arms and light weapons.