UN urges Sahel states to fight arms trafficking

The Sahel region's nations are urged by the UN to do more to stop the flow of armaments into the area.

According to the UN, most of the weaponry came from the national armed forces of neighboring African nations, including Libya, Sierra Leone, and Liberia.

It attributed the inflow to both corruption and a weak state presence.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed and millions have been displaced by an Islamist insurgency that has spread across Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, and Chad.

However, the UN claimed that the jihadists were not primarily involved in the trade and were unlikely to make a sizable profit from it.