Between 4 and 24 December 2024 UNDOC, through its Global Firearms Programme, facilitated Operation KAFO IV focused on preventing illicit firearms trafficking and targeting border crossings in Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Guinea, Mali and Mauritania. The operation mobilized more than 700 law enforcement officers as well as other officers from the criminal justice system, covering 23 border crossings, including with neighboring countries Ghana, Nigeria, Niger and Senegal, as well as airports and ports.
The Operation achieved important results leading to the seizure of dozens of firearms; thousands of rounds of ammunition; as well as explosives and dual use chemicals. Several cases are linked to firearms trafficking, including in relation to terrorist organizations, and for which investigations are ongoing. In addition, the operation also resulted in the seizure of important quantities of drugs, counterfeit medicine, contraband medical equipment and medicines, stolen vehicles, and more than 110,000 USD in cash.
In these firearm-specific operations, UNODC ensures that support continues well after the operation, providing targeted assistance in the investigation and prosecution of firearms trafficking, and also facilitating international cooperation on joint investigations as may be needed. In the past five years results from KAFO operations have led to the conviction of various suspect on arms trafficking and terrorism, and has led to the dismantling of criminal networks in the sub region.
A debriefing meeting on 25 January 2024 gathered the coordination teams of each country in order to assess the results of the operation as well as to identify challenges and opportunities for the continued fight against illicit firearm trafficking. General Bambo Fofana, President of the National Commission on Small Arms from Guinea said that “the usefulness of these operations can ben seen in all its editions and the results that have been achieved. Challenges remain, but a machine is moving with a purpose”.
On his part, Colonel Adama Diarra, Permanent Secretary of the National Commission on Small Arms from Mali took the occasion to highlight the increasing threat of trafficking of arms: “We see now trafficking from Northern zones of the country towards the South, some trends have inverted”. An existing worry is how weapons circulating in the Sahel start to reach coastal countries, reason why Operation KAFO IV included Benin for the first time since its beginning.
Simonetta Grassi, Chief of the Firearms Trafficking Section of UNODC, who runs the Global Firearms Programme, welcomed the results of the operation. “We have been working with countries in the subregion with this kind of operations since 2017. What we learn from the increasing results of these operations is that proper support and follow up to cases in the criminal justice system actually works. It can give results. Our continued engagement with various countries for almost a year prior to the launch of the operations -with capacity building, coordination meetings, among others- is a significant contribution to improve cooperation, exchange on information and the tracing of illicit firearms. It is an effort that we hope to sustain”.
The Operation was the result of the many efforts of National Commission on Small Arms in each country as well as of INTERPOL’s National Centre Bureaus. Operation KAFO IV was made possible with the support of the Government of Germany. In addition, UNODC’s Sahel Programme also contributed to the operation through funding from the UN’s Peacebuilding Fund.
