Niger concerned about smuggling of Libyan weapons in the region

December 28, 2011 (KHARTOUM) – The defense minister of Niger Mahamadou Karidjo expressed his fears regarding the smuggling of weapons from Libya to fall into the hands of wrong people.

In his meeting with Sudanese president Omer Hassan al-Bashir, the Nigerien official called for coordination between the two countries to avoid the dangers of outlaws getting hold of of these weapons.

Bashir on his end affirmed his country’s keenness on the security coordination with the Niger as well as cooperation in the fields of agricultural investment.

Since the downfall of Gaddafi’s regime in Libya last October, there were reports on some sophisticated weapons being missing from the stores of the Libyan army and their whereabouts unknown.

Western countries are fearful that Al-Qaeda linked terrorists get hold of these weapons.

Sudan beefed up control of its borders with Libya to prevent infiltration of weapons particularly through the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) rebels.

The JEM leader Khalil Ibrahim who was killed last week has been staying in Libya for more than a year before managing to escape and return to Darfur.

But Khartoum later claimed that weapons could have possibly slipped through despite the measures.

“We cannot exclude the possibility that some weapons have crossed into Darfur from Libya,” Sudan’s ambassador to the UN Daffa-Alla Elhag Ali Osman told Agence France Presse (AFP) in October.

“We are very much concerned about it” he said.

(ST)