Former chief of army staff,Lt.-Gen. Abdulrahman Dambazau (rtd) has said non-state actors in the Sahel region possess as many as 14 million firearms.
Dambazau, the Nigerian ambassador-designate to China said that protecting the welfare and interests of Nigerians residing in China will be his top priority as well as pursuing stronger bilateral cooperation in areas of human capital development, infrastructure, health, education, agriculture and security.
He said that Of the 14 million firearms, 11 million are within the West Africa towards Central Africa, saying that insecurity in Nigeria is a complex and regional problem that requires a regional approach to address it.
Dambazau says that the problem is not unique to Nigeria,saying that a major contributor to insecurity in the country and the Sahel region is the proliferation of firearms; hence, a partnership was needed to fight it.