'Au printemps 2020, je me suis rendu à Conakry, en Guinée, pour présenter, en marge d’une conférence, les résultats d’une étude sur le monitoring des armes à feu en Guinée. À cette occasion, j’avais prévu de rester sur place pour dispenser à l’équipe de l’unité régionale de police scientifique de la gendarmerie un module de formation à la balistique judiciaire. La pandémie de COVID-19 en a décidé autrement, et m’a amené à donner à distance cette formation sur laquelle je reviendrai plus en détail...'

'On my visit to Libya’s war-torn capital in mid-June, a Libyan friend I’ll call Mohamed* helped arrange a meeting with two commanders in the Mahjub Brigade — one of the largest armed groups of Misrata, a port city 200km east of the capital. Mohamed was a fighter in the brigade and went along to the meeting, at the group’s rear base near the frontline, not far from the Tripoli International Airport.

'Following the fall of Qaddafi, instability continues to persist in Libya. Numerous analyses have been published on the ever-changing dynamics on the ground (a few from the Small Arms Survey include papers on armed groups in Tripoli; struggles at Libya’s borders; and how neighbouring countries have manoeuvred the ongoing crisis), but few exist on the role that women played, and continue to play...'

'Many smugglers think of themselves as transporters, not criminals.[i] For, they argue, isn’t the smuggling of petrol, cigarettes and other goods across largely uncontrolled borders simply a way of making a living? And in terms of moving people, can people who smuggle migrants across borders be seen rather as service providers such as bus companies — as some suggest — rather than as smugglers?

The Libyan revolution deposed the Qaddafi regime in 2011 and with it brought to an end the tight regulation of the arms trade. Military stockpiles were raided, and small arms and light weapons made their way into the hands of non-state armed groups and private sellers.
 

More than four years after the start of the Syrian uprising, over a thousand armed groups are involved in fighting that has consumed the country. The groups range in size from small local units of a few hundred fighters to large movements with an international reach, and range along the political spectrum from secular groups to extremist groups with a transnational outlook.

A new online Dispatch, Foreign Jihadism in Syria: The Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, by the Survey's Security Assessment in North Africa (SANA) project, offers a snapshot of foreign fighters in Syria at the end of 2013. Focusing on the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham, the report examines the organization’s strengths, its weaknesses, and its operational impact.

A multitude of armed groups and smuggling networks with transnational reach are driving southern Libya’s integration into the Sahel–Sahara region.

'Small-calibre Ammunition in Libya: An Update', a new online Dispatch from the Security Assessment in North Africa (SANA) project, examines a 21 examples of small-calibre ammunition documented in Libya in 2011, 2012, and 2013, building on the results documented in Working Paper 16, The Headstamp Trail: An Assessment of Small-calibre Ammunition Found in Libya.   

After Kalashnikov-pattern rifles, Fusil Automatique Léger (FAL) rifles were among the most frequently sighted firearms during the 2011 armed conflict in Libya.

The FAL rifle was originally designed and manufactured at the Fabrique Nationale d’Armes de Guerre Herstal (FN Herstal), in Belgium,  and was dubbed ‘the right arm of the free world’ during the cold war. Since its release in 1954 it has undergone several modifications and was adopted by a number of countries, some of which also manufactured it under licence.