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Last Updated: Saturday, October 23rd, 2004 HOME | Previous Page Nigeria spends N141 billion on ECOWAS -Owoseni   Nigeria has spent more than   $10 billion (about N141b) in the last 15 years in her efforts to curb conflicts in West Africa caused by illicit circulation of small arms in the region. Ambassador Biodun Owoseni, Nigeria’s permanent represenative to the UN in Vienna, said on Thursday at the UN General Assembly debate on small arms and light weapons that 8 million of such weapons were in the region. “In addition to this, thousands of Nigerian soldiers and civilians have lost their lives in peacekeeping endeavours in the affected countries,’’ he said. “Nigeria continues to provide sanctuary to refugees fleeing from some of these conflicts at an enormous financial cost.’’ He said that in Africa, one of the greatest difficulties in controlling illicit proliferation of small arms was that they were easily accessible to non-state actors. “Consistent calls on the international community, particularly arms producing and supplying countries, to limit trade in small arms and light weapons to government and registered traders have been largely ignored,’’ he noted. The ambassador also noted that the failure of the international community to hold arms manufacturers, their agents and brokers to account had been largely responsible for the uncontrolled illicit circulation of the arms. He said African nations were ill-equipped to track illegal movements of illicit arms, and called on the global commmunity to take steps to sanction manufacturers and suppliers who violated laid down rules “The cooperation of the international community is needed to intensify efforts in investigating and identifying the link between illicit trade in small arms and light weapons and the illicit exploitation of natural resources in Africa,” he said.   Copyright� 2004. All Rights Reserved. Independent Newspapers Limited Block5, Plot 7D, Wempco Road, Ogba, P.M.B. 21777, Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria. www.independentng.com e-mail: [email protected] Designed By Powered By DNet.

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