18 January, 2024

New Briefing Paper on arms transfers to Afghanistan between 2002 and 2021

Following the Taliban’s assumption of control in Afghanistan in August 2021, uncertainty has persisted about the scale, scope, and specific elements of the arsenal it captured from the previous regime. A new report from the Small Arms Survey, based on hitherto unpublished official data, provides the most refined picture to date of the arsenals captured by the Taliban.

Calculable Losses? Arms transfers to Afghanistan 2002–21—a new Briefing Paper from the Small Arms Survey’s Contributing to Preventing Arms Proliferation from, within, and to Afghanistan project—analyses the publicly available data on arms exports to Afghanistan, identifies gaps in this data, and provides previously unreleased data obtained from the US government.

Read here: Calculable Losses? Arms transfers to Afghanistan 2002–21

For more, check out:

Records released by the US Defense Security Cooperation Agency in response to a request under the Freedom of Information Act for 'records on firearms, light weapons, and their ammunition exported (supplied) to the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF) in the Security Cooperation Information Portal (SCIP) [from] 1 January 2002 through 1 August 2022.
Arms Smuggling Dynamics under Taliban Rule—a Situation Update that reports on the recent field investigations in the country, and the risks for arms proliferation under the Taliban.
Taliban Arms Management Practices—a Situation Update that examines the extent to which the Taliban has been able to exert control over weapons in the country.
The Contributing to Preventing Arms Proliferation from, within, and to Afghanistan page
Afghanistan outputs in our Resource Library

Other news from the Survey: