Nigeria has destroyed 2,819 illegal, obsolete and decommissioned weapons as part of a wider campaign to prevent illicit firearms from fuelling insecurity across the country.
The National Centre for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons said the firearms were permanently destroyed during a public exercise on Thursday, ensuring they could not be recovered or returned to circulation.
Johnson Kokumo, the agency’s director-general, said the operation reflected the government’s commitment to reducing the number of illegal weapons in civilian hands and disrupting the networks supplying armed groups.
Nigeria continues to face widespread security challenges, including bandit attacks, kidnappings, Islamist insurgencies and deadly communal clashes. Authorities say the ready availability of illegal firearms has intensified the violence and made criminal groups more dangerous.
Since the arms control agency was established in 2021, security forces have seized more than 21,000 illicit weapons across the country, officials said.
More than 19,000 of those firearms have now been destroyed to ensure they are permanently removed from circulation.
The government has stepped up efforts to trace, seize and eliminate illegal weapons amid growing concern over arms trafficking and the movement of firearms across Nigeria’s borders.