Armed and Armless: Armed groups, guns, and human security in the ECOWAS region

The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and its 15 members have long understood the destabilizing and deleterious effects of small arms and light weapons on the region. Their decisions to undertake six regional peace-keeping operations since 1990 acknowledge these challenges and underscore their resolve to confront them. Indeed, the members, working unilaterally and together, have been at the forefront of international efforts to combat this scourge. A noteworthy example is the ground-breaking initiative of the Government of Mali to enter into a meaningful dialogue with members of its Tuareg and Arab minorities, resulting in the voluntary disarmament of 3,000 combatants in 1996 (Poulton and ag Youssouf, 1998). The 1998 ECOWAS Moratorium on Importation, Exportation and Manufacture of Light Weapons in West Africa represented an important step towards addressing small arms proliferation in the region. Recent notable developments include plans to transform the moratorium into a legally binding instrument, the decision to terminate the Programme for Coordination and Assistance for Security and Development (PCASED) and replace it with the ECOWAS Small Arms Control Programme (ECOSAP), and the creation of a Small Arms Unit (SAU) at ECOWAS headquarters.