Growing drug trafficking and unchecked arms trade are fuelling insurgencies across Africa, Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has said.
In a BBC interview, Mrs Sirleaf said the rise of militant groups - such as Boko Haram in Nigeria and al-Shabab in Somalia - was very disturbing.
She also mentioned recent attacks by Ansar Dine militants in Mali.
The president added that Liberia would lead a campaign to try to contain the menace.
Mrs Sirleaf said that she would now be urging countries which manufactured weapons to sign a treaty to stop arms proliferation.
The late Cardinal Basil Hume once likened the international arms trade to the trade in heroin, and he wasn’t wrong. Both fuel self-destruction and misery, both prey on the fearful and vulnerable. And both make obscene amounts of money.
The only difference is that one has government sponsorship and approval.
It’s time to end the Arms Trade.
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