China’s arms sales to African countries are fueling conflict on the continent, which has also been the foremost factor in forcing people out of their homes, leading to mass internal displacement, media reports said.
Almost all sub-Saharan countries are in the grip of low and high-intensity armed conflicts, with the Sub-Saharan region of Africa bearing the brunt of mass internal displacement, as reported by Inside Over. Who is to blame for all this? It is the proliferation of small arms and light weapons that is to be held responsible. Now, the proliferation of weapons can be attributed to bad governance, corruption, porous borders, poverty, deprivation, and unemployment, as reported by Inside Over.
According to experts, unless countries like China change their approach to weapons transfer and impose conditions on the sale of their arms to African countries, the threat of illegal arms spread across the continent will continue.
As per Jane’s Defence Weekly, nearly 70% of armoured military vehicles in all 54 African countries are of Chinese origin, while nearly 20% of all military vehicles on the continent have been supplied by China, the media portal said.
Citing a report by Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), the outlet pointed out that, emerging as the fourth global arms supplier, China accounted for 4.6% of total global arms exports between 2017 and 2021