New Reports Reveals Weapons Used By Herdsmen Were From Nigerian Security Agencies

A new report by the Conflict Armament Research (CAR) has noted that some of the weapons used them during the Farmers/cattle herdsmen clash are from the Nigerian Security agencies.

According to the report, some of the weapons were traced to “stockpiles of Nigerian defence and security forces”.

The report revealed that 148 different weapons were discovered and analysed, and those manufactured in Nigeria are the second most prevalent among them.

“Predictably, given widespread weapon diversion from many governments in the region, CAR has traced four weapons in the data set to the stockpiles of Nigerian defence and security forces,” the report said.

“Nigerian-manufactured small-calibre ammunition—including cartridges manufactured as recently as 2014—is the second-most prevalent type of ammunition in this data set.

“Four of the weapons in the data set were previously in service with Nigerian national defence and security forces. CAR has established this through formal tracing and the analysis of secondary marks applied to the weapons, which identify their users.”

Since the clash began in 2018, at least 3,600 people have been killed as revealed by Amnesty International, which blamed the casualties on “gross incompetence” on the part of the authorities.

In plateau where many have been killed due to the violent clashes, the police and other security agencies arrest suspects without prosecution.

The report which was focused on states such as; Zamfara, Katsina and Kaduna states, said a study of the weapons in use shows the violence is “perpetrated almost exclusively with small arms and light weapons”.

CAR said while some of the weapons used in the conflict are locally manufactured, some originated in Gaddafi-era Libyan stockpiles, and others produced in Europe, East Asia, and the Middle East.

It also traced some of the weapons to terrorists and special forces in Iraq and Libya.