By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, July 9 -- The UN Office for West Africa reported on Friday to the Security Council about Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, Guinea, Mali, Niger and the Cameroon - Nigeria Mixed Commission. But events in Libya, while not in West Africa, made their appearance in the report.
Along with references to the loss of remittances from migrant workers in Libya to the native Mali and Niger and a vague reference to “the cross-border impact of the Libyan crisis,” Paragraph 57 of the UNOWA report says “weapons have been transferred from Libya and fallen into the hands of terrorists in the Sahel Band, risking destabilizing the whole region.”
A Security Council member which on July 7 led criticism in the Libya Sanctions Committee of France's “parachuting” of weapons into Libya, saying it violated the Council's arms embargo, pointed to Paragraph 57 of the UNOWA report and told Inner City Press, You see? France has no way to know where its weapons go -- possibly to the Sahel groups which take French and other internationals hostage.
In fact, Algeria has expressed concerns of weapons from Libya making their way out across the Tenere Desert of Mali and Niger. The flows from Libya, into which France added fuel to the fire, were a topic at a recent meeting in Madrid, and will be at another session in Algeria in September including groups like the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism.
Will they speak out on France's weapons drops, since the UN Security Council's Libya Sanctions Committee, which requires consensus, will clearly not take action, having in effect exempted Security Council members from the arms embargoes they impose on others? Watch this site.
