IRIN Web Special on Civilian Protection in Armed Conflict

Abidjan, 30 March (IRIN) - Five years after the end of rebel wars in Niger, the presence of small arms in that country and over the border In Nigeria and Chad, continues to threaten the welfare of millions of people. Freeing a former conflict zone of such weapons is the aim of a pilot project under way in southeastern Niger. However, to ensure long-term success, similar initiatives with a more regional focus may be needed.

The destruction of 103 small arms handed in by people in N'Guigmi region of southeastern Niger on 18 March marked a new phase in the Arms for Development Project run by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) with support from the Programme for Coordination and Assistance for Security and Development in Africa (PCASED), based in Bamako, Mali.

Until then, the project, begun in 2001, had been in the awareness-building phase. By its completion in October this year, about 5,000 weapons will have been collected and destroyed, project officials hope.

The project is being carried out at N'Guigmi, 1,500 km east of the Niger capital, Niamey, on the border with Niger's turbulent eastern neighbour, Chad. Both countries have had rebel wars but, while armed conflict between government forces and fighters from Saharan communities (Toubou, Tuareg and Arab) in Niger started in 1991 and ended in 1998, Chad has been plagued by war since 1965.

"During the various wars in Chad, many Chadian rebels entered Niger with their weapons," said Alou Tankary, head of UNDP's Good Governance Project in Niger. "N'Guigmi is also on the border with Nigeria, so you see its very geographical position made us set up this pilot project there."

Nguigmi Region, where the population is about 52,000, was also one of the theatres of armed conflict in Niger in the 1990s.

Part of regional, global fight against illicit small arms

The project is being implemented with a US$300,000 grant from UNDP's Bureau for Crisis Prevention and Recovery, based in Geneva, Switzerland, US$7,000 and technical support from the UNDP country office in Niger and US$10,000 from PCASED for arms destruction equipment.

It is linked to a moratorium which the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) imposed on the import, manufacture and export of small arms in 1998, Tankary said. Article 13 of the moratorium's code of conduct calls for the collection of all illicit small arms in West Africa, and their destruction, so as to prevent them from being stolen and reused in wars, violence or crime.

It is also linked to a United Programme for Action adopted at the UN Conference on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in All its Aspects in New York in July 2001, according to Napoleon Abdulai of PCASED.

The programme of action urges states and regional blocs "to ensure that all confiscated, seized or collected small arms and light weapons are destroyed". It also calls on them to develop and implement public awareness and confidence-building programmes on problems and consequences of the illicit trade in small arms and light weapons, including the voluntary surrender of such weapons, Abdulai said.

Communities that hand over weapons receive development assistance in return, covering areas such as water supply, support services for livestock, education and health.

The arms destruction in N'Guigmi last week was the fifth in Niger since the end of the rebellions of the 1990s. The first was in 2000 in the northern town of Agadez, where 1,243 weapons were destroyed, according to Abdulai, who technical adviser for the arms destruction exercise.

Three other such ceremonies were held in 2001-2002, one in Diffa in the southeast and two in Agadez. In each case, 100 weapons were destroyed. "Should the project be a success it could be replicated elsewhere in Niger," according to Tankary.

There have already been calls for that to happen. "At a conflict-resolution workshop organised by the government in Agadez, one of the recommendations was that there should be three or more projects like the one in N'Guigmi, located in areas that saw much fighting and where the security forces and government believe there are a lot of weapons in society," Abdulai said.

Weapons from Europe and North Africa

There are about eight million small arms in West Africa, according to PCASED. In the case of N'Guigmi, weapons have been coming in from Various sources.

"Some of the weapons were brought in by caravans coming from Algeria," said Abdulai. "But the main source has been the 'Cold War Pipeline', weapons used in the various rebellions in Chad [during the days of the Cold War]. Most came from either France or Libya", which backed opposing sides in the Chadian conflicts.

"A lot of weapons were buried around Lake Chad," according to Abdulai. "There has been some recycling of weapons, too. Some go back into northern Nigeria."

Whereas rebel forces wielded the guns until recently, it is mostly bandits who operate in the area around Lake Chad that use them now. "There is a lot of banditry in the area because it's a very bushy area," Tankary said. "It's practically a forest and, after the bandits from Nigeria do their mischief, they withdraw to that area."

Communities in northeastern Nigeria have reportedly hired some former rebels to help them fight local rivals.

The Small Arms Survey 2001, produced by the Graduate Institute of International Studies, noted that one of the effects of the availability of small arms was the capacity to "transform a localised dispute into a bloodbath".

This has been borne out on a number of occasions in West Africa, including in late February this year when a dispute between nomadic herders and sedentary farmers in northeastern Nigeria gave rise to an attack blamed on hired guns from Chad, in which about 40 people were reported to have died.

The proliferation of weapons and armed attacks in the area prompted Nigeria to hold talks with its northern neighbours about measures to safeguard their frontiers. As a result, the governments of Niger and Nigeria recently began deploying mixed patrols along their borders.

Sub-regional approach needed

Both Abdulai and Tankary feel that a sub-regional approach is needed to ensure that the benefits of an initiative such as Niger's Arms for Development Project are not negated by the arrival of fresh weapons, or by the activities of bandits or other armed elements.

"There should be a sub-regional arms-for-development project that would target parts of Chad, Niger and Northern Nigeria in order to collect the weapons and control the banditry that is going on in these areas," Abdulai said.

Such programmes, along with massive development projects, were also needed in other parts of West Africa that have seen violent conflicts in recent years, he said, citing the examples of southern Nigeria's Niger Delta, the Dagbon area in northern Ghana, Guinea-Bissau, and Casamance in southern Senegal, when peace finally returns to that area.

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