New SANA Report on the illicit proliferation of MANPADS in the MENA region

Since 1970, armed groups have hit dozens of civilian aircraft with man-portable air defence systems (MANPADS), killing more than 1,000 civilians. The international community has taken numerous steps to reduce illicit proliferation, but armed groups in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region continue to acquire and use these systems.

Persistent Perils: Illicit MANPADS in the MENA Region—a new Report from the Small Arms Survey’s Security Assessment In North Africa (SANA) project—provides an in-depth analysis of the proliferation of MANPADS in North Africa and the Middle East from 2015–23. Drawing on imagery and data collected since 2015 to identify the type, model, generation, and country of design/manufacture of illicit MANPADS in the region, the Report assesses the implications of recent proliferation patterns for regional security and international norms and agreements.  

Read: Persistent Perils: Illicit MANPADS in the MENA Region

For more, check out:

• The Illicit Possession and Transfer of MANPADS: A Global Assessment (June 2022)—a blog post that updates and refines Small Arms Survey’s previous assessments of the illicit acquisition of MANPADS.
• A Political Economy of Tripoli’s Abu Salim: The Rise of the Stability Support Apparatus as Hegemon (April 2024)—a Briefing Paper that examines how Ghaniwa’s methods have reshaped Abu Salim’s political economy
• A Political Economy of Zawiya: Armed Groups and Society in a Western Libyan City (March 2024)—a Report that examines how Zawiya’s armed groups gradually came to take on a particularly abusive and predatory character
• Continuity and Change: Extremist-used Arms in Mali (January 2024)—a Briefing Paper that investigates the arms, ammunition, explosives, and other materiel used in extremist attacks in Mali from 2015 to 2022, and the sources and pathways through which they were obtained
• The SANA project page
• Other SANA outputs in our Resource Library

Other news from the Survey:

• New HSBA Situation Update on the Political Economy of Port Sudan, Sudan
• New SANA Briefing Paper on the political economy of Tripoli’s Abu Salim
• New HSBA Situation Update on the SPLA-North mobilization in South Kordofan, Sudan
• The Small Arms Survey’s New 5-year Strategy
• New report on the political economy of armed groups in Libya
• New Blog Post: More firearms, more security, or greater gender violence in Chile?