Libya now a major hub for online arms trading, says report

SINCE 2011, Libya has become a hotspot of illicit weapons sales, many through messaging applications and social media networks, according to a new report.

The report – which tracks more than 1 300 attempted online sales from 2014 to 2015 – was published by the Geneva-based Small Arms Survey, and uses data collected and analysed by the group Armament Research Services. Although its authors say that the data set is only a small fraction of illicit arms sales in Libya, the report highlights trends in the growing trade.

Weapons from 26 countries, including the US, China, Belgium and Turkey, were found in the 1 346 tracked sales. Although most of the small arms were for self-defence and sporting purposes, some people involved in the transfers had ties to Libyan militant groups.

“While online trades appear to account for only a small portion of the illicit arms trade in Libya, their relative anonymity, low barrier to entry, and distributed nature are likely to pose unique challenges to law enforcement and embargo monitoring operations,” said Nic Jenzen-Jones, director of Armament Research Services.

Last year, using the preliminary data from the survey working paper, the New York Times reported that militant groups and terrorists were using social media networks such as Facebook to traffic weapons from small arms to anti-aircraft missiles in Libya, Iraq, Syria and Yemen.

Facebook’s policy towards weapon transfers appears to be unchanged since that article. It prohibits arms sales but requires users to self-report pages involved in the transfers. Because many groups are secret or closed to the public, the pages often gather thousands of members and operate for months before being shut down.