Improving Security and Stability: MAG's Arms Management and Destruction in the Sahel and West Africa
Between March 2020 and March 2022, Mines Advisory Group (MAG) was engaged in a series of activities aimed at securing weapons, destroying unstable ammunition and increasing accountability among the security and defence forces in the Gambia, Sierra Leone, Guinea, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania, and Nigeria.
MAG’s activities within this project included technical assessments of weapons storage facilities against international standards, monitoring of rehabilitation works of existing armouries, delivery and setting up of containerised armouries, provision of equipment in cases where a full armoury is not required, compliance visits at improved facilities, delivery of armoury storekeeper and store management training to security and defence force personnel, and delivery of training in weapons and ammunition destruction as well as weapons marking. MAG also supported the destruction of SALW (some of which were unserviceable) and their ammunition in certain project countries
MAG and relevant national authorities jointly organised a high-level stakeholder meeting in Abuja. The meeting allowed the National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (NCCSALW) the opportunity to discuss the Centre’s priorities and solicit support from partners in various areas. The roundtable meeting allowed participants to engage in dialogue on the principal challenges and key issues related to SALW proliferation and insecurity in Nigeria. Key issues raised included the impact of the proliferation of SALWs on women/children, escalation of gender-based violence and ways to enhance local capacity to de-escalate illegal weapons production.
MAG was involved in a series of activities aimed at improving the ability of relevant authorities to keep accurate records of state-held and civilian weapons independently, which included support of the roll-out of the Arms-Tracker database, weapon marking and the delivery of the related training for national authorities.
In Burkina Faso, MAG trained members of a local association to deliver SALW risk education in their communities, with both women and men being recipients of the training. Experts from the National Commission independently assessed the training sessions, which they found to be well-designed relevant and having a positive impact on the communities. Through this project, the National Commission’s Gender Task Force in Mali – which had received training in gender mainstreaming earlier in the project – received funding to meet on a monthly basis to discuss the various activities that the Task Force had planned and carried out.
MAG supported the development of national capacity to understand proliferation of, and strategically manage SALW, facilitating the relationship between national authorities of Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone with Small Arms Survey (SAS). MAG also carried out several training sessions and regular monitoring/review sessions on SALW risk education with implementing partners throughout the course of the project period. These training activities were directed to local organisations that will later work with local communities.
This project was implemented with funding from Germany by the Mines Advisory Group (MAG) and aimed at strengthening the capacity of the countries involved in the management and destruction of arms in the Sahel and West Africa to reduce the risk of diversion and illicit trafficking. The activities carried out by MAG were aimed at reducing the illegal proliferation of SALW across West Africa and Sahel Region, and include technical assessments of current weapons storage facilities, construction and rehabilitation of armouries, SALW marking and SALW SAA destruction, and relevant training.
The project was also oriented toward the achievement of other goals, including increasing awareness of gender perspectives in SALW management activities across West Africa and the Sahel and the development of community-level activities to understand and address the impact of SALW.
