Libyan Weapons Fueling Extremist Groups in Nigeria and Sahel – UN

On Jun 5, 2026

The UN has warned that weapons “looted during the 2011 conflict in Libya” are fueling ongoing insecurity in West Africa. Addressing delegates at the UN headquarters in New York on the proliferation of illicit arms, Izumi Nakamitsu, UN Under-Secretary-General and High Representative for Disarmament Affairs, said the weapons have resurfaced in the hands of extremist groups operating in Nigeria and across the wider Sahel region.

Nakamitsu said arms diverted or stolen during conflicts often circulate for years after the fighting ends, posing long-term threats to regional and global security. “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 said.

Nakamitsu linked the spread of illicit weapons directly to terrorism, human rights abuses, and sexual and gender-based violence.

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President Muhammadu Buhari has said that “as long as Libya remains unstable, illegal arms and ammunition will continue to flow into the Sahel region of the African continent”. Buhari was speaking at a State House event that hosted Mohammed Ibn Chambas, the outgoing special representative of the UN Secretary-General and Head of the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel (UNOWAS). The president said the late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi held a “grip on power in Libya for 42 years by

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Gunmen in Nigeria.

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