How is arms trafficking a threat to maritime security? What international cooperation efforts are being made to combat this traffic? An overview of an activity that is as diffuse as it is opaque.
Arms Smuggling at Sea: A Maritime Security Threat
According to the Small Arms Survey, part of the Geneva Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, there are over a billion small arms and light weapons in circulation worldwide. This number has doubled in the last 20 years. Many of these weapons come from illicit maritime trafficking. In fact, more than 90% of the world’s consumer goods are transported by sea, usually in container ships. These ships, which are between 100 and 200 meters long, carry between 500 and 3,000 containers. The largest can reach almost 400 meters and carry up to 24,000 containers! Despite the procedures and controls in place, no shipping company can guarantee the infallibility of its security systems or certify that there are no weapons hidden in the containers. There are always technical and human weaknesses. The United Nations estimates that arms trafficking is one of the four most lucrative illegal activities, along with drug trafficking, arms trafficking and prostitution. These activities are often interlinked.
Arms trafficking naturally fuels maritime piracy, which is on the decline but remains at a high level. According to data from the Marine Information Cooperation & Awareness Center (MICA Center), 340 acts of maritime piracy were recorded in 2024, a 15% increase on the 295 incidents in 2023, a far cry from the 668 in 2011. “The number of acts of maritime piracy increased by 114% in 2024, from 28 incidents in 2023 to 60 the following year. 70% of these acts are concentrated in the Indian Ocean, particularly off the coast of Somalia. Robbery, on the other hand, increased at a slower rate, with 280 incidents reported in 2024, an increase of 4.86% over the previous year.. The regions most affected by this phenomenon are the Americas and the Caribbean arc (119) and Southeast Asia and the Pacific (97)”, reports the MICA Center.
Millions of dollars
How many weapons are trafficked by sea around the world each year? It is impossible to say, as there are no reliable statistics on the matter, because unless a country is under an embargo or sanctions, the arms trade remains a private affair with little regulation or oversight. No country seems to be exempt from the trade. The most exposed countries are, of course, those in open conflict or civil war (Ukraine, Sudan, Syria, Haiti, Myanmar, Iran, Israel-Palestine, Yemen, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mali, etc.).
This is also the case of Libya, which has been in an almost permanent civil war since the fall of Colonel Gaddafi in 2011. In April 2024, the Libyan media Fawasel witnessed a direct delivery of military equipment at the port of Tobruk: “the fifth in forty-five days,” the media noted. These weapons were destined for Marshal Khalifa Haftar, who has been supported by Moscow since at least 2018. He controls the eastern part of the country against the western government based in Tripoli, led by Mohamed Al-Menfi and recognised by the United Nations (UN). On June 18, 2024, Italian authorities, in collaboration with US intelligence services, intercepted an arms shipment on board the container ship MSC Arina, at the port of Gioia Tauro (Italy), “worth several million dollars, believed to be destined for Benghazi (Libya)”, reported Corriere della Serra. Departing on April 30 from the port of Yantian, a harbor district of Shenzhen (China), it had called at Singapore, rounded the Cape of Good Hope, avoiding the Red Sea and Suez, then entered the Mediterranean from Gibraltar before making two further stops at Valencia and Barcelona (Spain).
Miliary resources
The non-governmental organisation Institute for Security Studies (ISS) reveals that maritime ports and waterways have become hotspots for the illicit trade in firearms, facilitated by corruption among security personnel and businessmen. It cites the case of Nigeria in particular. According to its research, the ISS estimates that no less than 21.5 million firearms and ammunition entered Nigeria illegally between 2010 and 2017, exacerbating crime rates in various sectors. On 21 June last year, Nigerian customs officers intercepted 844 firearms, including rifles and carbines, and 112,500 rounds of ammunition hidden among legitimate goods in a container from Turkey in Port Harcourt.
To combat this traffic, countries are forging short-term or longer-term partnerships (2023) with the aim of “strengthening regional capacity to destabilize illicit firearms trafficking”.
The European Union became involved in this fight by launching Operation Irini (“peace” in Greek) in March 2020. It has mobilised naval and air military resources from France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Luxembourg, Poland and Portugal, with varying levels of contribution from each. This operation, which has been extended until 31 March 2027, aims not only to monitor all illegal activities (people, drugs, oil) but also to enforce the United Nations embargo on arms shipments to Libya. In January 2025 alone, this European Union air and naval mission carried out ten on-board inspections (702 “friendly approaches” since the start of the mandate). It also monitored 381 merchant vessels by radio (501 in October, out of a total of 17,142), monitored 44 suspicious flights (1,750 in December, out of a total of more than 2,500) and continued to monitor 31 airports and more than 2,000 ports and oil terminals.
Combating Arms Trafficking: International Efforts
The international community has also focused its efforts on the Horn of Africa, the Red Sea and off the coast of Somalia. On 6 January this year, US naval forces intercepted in international waters an Iranian dhow bound for Yemen carrying more than 2,000 AK-47 assault rifles. According to some sources, thousands of weapons from an arms trade between the two countries are illegally shipped by sea to Somalia. There they are sold to extremist groups such as the Islamic State of Somalia and al-Shabaab.
The UN, the European Union, the United States and many other countries are trying to persuade local authorities to increase surveillance of their coastlines. Regional initiatives such as the Djibouti Code of Conduct (through its Jeddah Amendment) already recognise the significant threat posed by illegal maritime activities, including arms trafficking. A solution that inevitably requires the cooperation of coastal states.
SIDEBAR
Six countries in the crosshairs
In all, 6 supplier countries are singled out by a report published by Amnesty International in July 2024 for fuelling the conflict in Sudan, despite the mandatory UN Security Council embargo that has been in place for two decades: Serbia, Russia, Turkey, China, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Several of them are signatories or parties to the Arms Trade Treaty, which prohibits the transfer of arms to a country where there is a significant risk of human rights violations, as is the case in Sudan. Some weapons (drone jammers, mortars, rifles, and the relevant ammunition…) even reach Darfur, in the west of the country.
