The Nigerian Foreign Minister Yusuf Tuggar said that his country had been deeply concerned about the escalation of the spread of weapons in the Sahel region: something that occurred with the "collapse of the Libyan state."
Tuggar expressed his concern about the possibility of Western weapons being smuggled from Ukraine to the African continent, saying in statements reported by Nigerian media on Sunday that this was a part of the problem of global conflicts, as “when there is an increase in arms supplies, they infiltrate the region.”
"Nigeria is concerned about the spread of small arms and light weapons, and we saw something similar happen with the collapse of the government in Libya a few years ago. Suddenly there was a huge availability of weapons, even fighters.” Tuggar said.
African experts confirmed that small and light weapons leaked from Libya had arrived in Nigeria and were being sold “like rice on the market,” fueling bandit activity, according to what was reported by the African Defense Platform magazine issued by the US Africa Command.
