The Republic of Mali, one of the Arms Trade Treaty’s earliest champions, became the ninth country to ratify the Treaty on 6 December in New York.
Mali’s support for the ATT goes back to 2003 when it joined with Cambodia, Costa Rica and the Control Arms coalition in calling for a legally binding treaty to regulate the global arms trade. The implications of the ATT for Mali are significant. Many of the weapons now circulating there have come by way of Libya. They came from stocks built up by Colonel Gaddhafi over 40 years of excessive arms buying, and from stocks sent illicitly to aid the uprising against him. Mali is also victim of arms trafficking across the wider Sahel region. This kind of proliferation and diversion is exactly what the ATT will prevent.
