Mrs. Afi Azaratu Yakubu, Executive Secretary of the National Commission on Small Arms and Light Weapons, praised ECOWAS and its partners for generating a report that serves as a solid foundation for a comprehensive conversation on arms brokering in West Africa.
The report, as well as the operational guidelines that accompany it, provide a solid foundation for Member States to develop legislation and processes to govern brokering operations.
Mrs Yakubu made the remarks at a technical specialists conference in Abuja, Nigeria, on the Validation of a Study Report on Arms Brokering in West Africa, which was organized by the ECOWAS Small Arms and Light Weapons Division as part of the Organized Crime: West African Response to Trafficking Project.
Its purpose was to examine and confirm a draft research report as well as operational recommendations for controlling weapons brokering in the ECOWAS.
In an interview with the Ghana News Agency, Mrs Yakubu explained that in many countries, small arms were easy to fall into the hands of people who used them to commit crimes in violation of international humanitarian or human rights laws or diverted them to the illicit market due to a lack of regulation and controls.
According to recent worldwide data, the arms trade has shifted away from direct communication between government officials or agents and toward the widespread use of private middlemen who worked in a highly globalized setting, frequently from various places, she added.
"Contemporary merchants, agents, brokers, shippers, and financiers often mix their operations, making it difficult to clearly differentiate small weapons trafficking from brokering and associated activities," according to the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs Information.
Many countries had not enacted specific laws or regulations covering arms brokering within their systems of arms export, according to Mrs Yakubu, so the ECOWAS Arms Brokering Regulations would ensure that member states regulated the importation and exportation of arms and contributed to the reduction of illicit transfers and diversions into unauthorised hands.
The Head of the ECOWAS Small Arms Division, Mr Piex Joseph Ahoba, emphasized the significance of regulating arms brokering operations.
He stressed the need of national and regional actions aimed at preventing, fighting, and eliminating illicit small arms and light weapons circulation, trafficking, and proliferation.
Given the diversity of the specialists present, he expressed confidence that the workshop would elicit suggestions that would enhance the draft Operational Guidelines on Arms Brokering.
The ECOWAS project Organized Crime: West African Response to Trafficking (OCWAR-T) was commissioned by the German government and co-financed by the European Union.
The UN Development Programme, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the Mines Advisory Group, the International Centre for Migration Policy Development, the Institute for Security Studies, and the Global Initiative Against Organized Crime all collaborate with GIZ to execute the OCWAR-T.