Weapons looted during Libya’s 2011 conflict that toppled Muammar Gaddafi have found their way into the hands of extremist groups in Nigeria, the United Nations has revealed.
The UN Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, Izumi Nakamitsu, made the disclosure on Tuesday at UN Headquarters in New York, where member states gathered to address the global spread of illicit firearms.
Nakamitsu said arms diverted during and after the Libyan conflict had since surfaced across the wider Sahel region — including Niger, Burkina Faso, and Nigeria — and were later recovered in the possession of extremist groups. “The end of the conflict does not mean the end of the circulation of those weapons; it stays, and it continues to harm people,” she warned.
The UN’s top disarmament official said the problem extended beyond security, touching on peacebuilding, human rights and development. She noted that illicit weapons were linked to terrorism, human rights abuses, and sexual and gender-based violence.
Nakamitsu also raised alarm over emerging threats, including ghost guns, 3D-printed firearms and increasingly sophisticated trafficking networks that were complicating efforts to track illegal arms. “Those weapons or weapon parts, if they are disassembled and then trafficked, are more difficult to trace,” she said.
In sub-Saharan Africa, the UN warned that the proliferation of small arms — often retained by armed groups, militias or communities for self-protection — risked undermining peacebuilding long after fighting had ceased. UN member states adopted an action programme in 2001 to strengthen national legislation, improve stockpile security and combat illicit trafficking.
This was followed in 2005 by the International Tracing Instrument, which established global standards for marking, recording and tracing illegal weapons — helping investigators determine the origin of illicit arms and how they entered illegal markets.
The UN continues to support implementation through technical assistance, policy guidance and capacity-building programmes aimed at helping governments secure weapons stockpiles, improve tracing systems and strengthen border controls.
