Editing Arms trafficking (section)

=== Africa ===
{{See also|Arms trafficking in Ivory Coast}}

==== Liberia and Sierra Leone conflicts ====
The [[Sierra Leone Civil War|civil war in Sierra Leone]] lasted from 1991 to 2002, and left 75,000 people dead. Gunrunning played a significant role in this conflict. Weapons of all sorts were shipped to all sides in both [[Sierra Leone]], and [[Liberia]] from abroad. These included [[small arms]], such as, [[pistol]]s, [[assault rifle]]s, grenades, [[M18 Claymore mine|Claymores]], knives, machetes, etc. Larger weapons such as missiles, light machine guns, mortars, anti-tank missiles, tanks, and planes were also used. During this time a civil war was occurring in nearby Liberia. The [[Liberian Civil War (disambiguation)|Liberian Civil Wars]] took place from 1989 through 1997. The war was between the existing government and the [[National Patriotic Front of Liberia|National Patriotic Front]]. Leader of the National Patriotic Front of Liberia, [[Charles Taylor (Liberian politician)|Charles Taylor]], helped to create the [[Revolutionary United Front]] (RUF) in Sierra Leone. Taylor was the recipient of thousands of illegally trafficked arms from eastern Europe (mostly Ukraine). Taylor then sold some of these weapons to the RUF in exchange for diamonds.<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last1=Rothe |first1=Dawn L. |last2=Ross |first2=Jeffrey Ian |date=2012 |title=How States Facilitate Small Arms Trafficking in Africa: A Theoretical and Juristic Interpretation |url=https://digitalscholarship.tsu.edu/context/ajcjs/article/1084/viewcontent/How_20States_20Facilitate_20Small_20Arms_20Trafficking_20in_20Africa.pdf |journal=SSRN Working Paper Series |doi=10.2139/ssrn.2427762 |issn=1556-5068|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230123121748/https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2427762|archive-date=2023-01-23|url-status=live }}</ref> President of Burkina Faso, [[Blaise Compaoré|Blaise Compaore]], "directly facilitated Liberia's arms-for-diamonds trade" with Liberia and Sierra Leone.<ref name=":4" /> Compaore would give guns to Taylor, who would then sell them to the RUF in exchange for diamonds. These [[blood diamond]]s would then be sold back to Compaore for more guns. The cyclical exchange allowed Compaore the ability to deny directly sending arms to Sierra Leone.[[Image:Gun pyre in Uhuru Gardens, Nairobi.jpg|thumb|right|250px|A tower of confiscated smuggled weapons about to be set ablaze in [[Nairobi]], [[Kenya]]]]

The Liberian government received arms through an elaborate front company in [[Guinea]]. The arms were intended to be shipped (legally) from [[Uganda]] to [[Slovakia]]. However, the arms were diverted to Guinea as a part of "an elaborate bait and switch".<ref name=":4" /> Additionally the British government "encouraged [[Sandline International]], a private security firm and non state entity, to supply arms and ammunitions to the loyal forces of the exiled government of President Kabbah."<ref>{{Citation |last=Schabas |first=William |title=Truth Commissions and Courts |date=2004 |pages=3–54 |editor-last=Schabas |editor-first=William |chapter=A Synergistic Relationship: The Sierra Leone Truth and Reconciliation Commission and the Special Court for Sierra Leone |publisher=Springer Netherlands |doi=10.1007/978-1-4020-3237-0_1 |isbn=978-1-4020-3223-3 |s2cid=143783314 |editor2-last=Darcy |editor2-first=Shane}}</ref> Sandline proceeded 35 tons of arms from Bulgaria, to Kabbah's forces.<ref name=":4" />

====The South Sudanese civil war====
Ever since the [[South Sudanese civil war]] began in December 2013, gunrunning into that nation has reached rampant levels.<ref name="Martell">{{Cite book |last=Martell |first=Peter |title=First Raise a Flag: How South Sudan Won the Longest War But Lost the Peace |date=2019 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-005270-6 |location=Oxford |page=235}}</ref> As [[South Sudan]] has hardly any electricity and no manufacturing, both sides were entirely dependent upon buying arms from abroad to fight their war. President [[Salva Kiir Mayardit]] used shadowy networks of arms dealers from China, Uganda, Israel, Egypt and Ukraine to arm his forces.<ref name="Martell" /> As oil companies paid rent for their concessions in South Sudan, the government was able to afford to buy arms on a lavish scale.<ref name="Martell" /> In June 2014, the government's National Security Service signed a deal worth $264 million US dollars with a Seychelles-based shell company to buy 30 tanks, 50,000 AK-47 assault rifles and 20 million bullets.<ref name="Martell" /> The owner of the shell company currently remains unknown. In July 2014, the Chinese arms manufacturer [[Norinco]] delivered a shipment to South Sudan of 95,000 assault rifles and 20 million rounds of ammunition, supplying enough bullets to kill every person in South Sudan twice over.<ref name="Martell" /> The American arms dealer and private military contractor, [[Erik Prince]], sold to the government for $43 million three Mi-24 attack helicopters and two L-39 jets together with the services of Hungarian mercenary pilots to operate the aircraft.<ref name="Martell" /> The majority of the arms supplied to South Sudan from Uganda originated from Romania, Bulgaria and Slovakia, all which are members of the European Union (EU), and were supposed to abide by an EU arms embargo placed on South Sudan in 2011.<ref name="Tut Pur">{{Cite news |last=Tut Pur |first=Nyagoah |date=8 May 2019 |title=South Sudan's Arms Embargo Flouted |publisher=Human Rights Watch |url=https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/05/08/south-sudans-arms-embargo-flouted |access-date=22 April 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230206070642/https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/05/08/south-sudans-arms-embargo-flouted|archive-date= February 6, 2023}}</ref>   

Less is known about the very secretive arms dealers supplying the rebel [[Sudan People's Liberation Movement-in-Opposition]] (SPLM-IO) led by [[Riek Machar]] other than that the majority of the gunrunners appeared to be European.<ref name="Martell" /> A rare exception was with the Franco-Polish arms dealer [[Pierre Dadak]] who was arrested on 14 July 2016 at his villa in [[Ibiza]] on charges of gunrunning into South Sudan.<ref name="Martell" /> At his villa, the Spanish [[National Police Corps]] allege that they found documents showing he was negotiating to sell Machar 40,000 AK-47 assault rifles, 30,000 PKM machine guns and 200,000 boxes of ammunition.<ref name="Martell" />

The United Nations Panel of Experts on South Sudan in a 2017 report declared: "Reports from independent sources indicate that the border areas between South Sudan and the Sudan and Uganda remain key entry points for arms, with some unsubstantiated reports of smaller numbers of weapons also crossing into South Sudan from the Democratic Republic of the Congo. There are also persistent reports and public accusations of shipments to forces affiliated with the leadership in Juba from further afield, specifically from Egypt".<ref name="Allimadi">{{Cite news |last=Allimadi |first=Milton |date=24 April 2017 |title=UN Panel Wants Arms Embargo on South Sudan |publisher=Black Star News |url=https://www.blackstarnews.com/global-politics/africa/un-panel-wants-arms-embargo-on-south-sudan-calls-president|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230125130005/https://www.blackstarnews.com/global-politics/africa/un-panel-wants-arms-embargo-on-south-sudan-calls-president|archive-date= January 25, 2023}}</ref> The same report stated that a Ukrainian Air Force IL-76 transport jet flew in two L-39 jets to Uganda on 27 January 2017 in the full knowledge the L-39 jets were intended to go on to South Sudan, thereby violating the arms embargo Ukraine had placed on arms sales to South Sudan.<ref name="Allimadi" /> In 2018, the United Nations Security Council imposed a worldwide arms embargo on South Sudan, but the embargo has been widely ignored where despite a ceasefire signed the same year, both sides have continued to import arms on a massive scale, suggesting that they are preparing for another bout of the civil war.<ref name="Tut Pur" />