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This article explores the challenges and limitations of measuring drug trafficking in Africa. It discusses how the framing of drug trafficking at the international and regional level can shape its empirical assessment and highlights the difficulties in obtaining accurate data on drug flows. The article critically reviews three commonly referenced metrics of drug trafficking and examines the methods used by domestic agencies in Nigeria, Senegal, and Mali to generate and share information on drug trafficking. It argues for a reevaluation of existing metrics and the adoption of a relational interpretation of evidence to better understand drug trafficking in Africa. The article also discusses the challenges and limitations of measuring drug trafficking flows, particularly in Africa. It highlights that drug-related arrests often target low-level offenders and do not effectively reduce drug flows. Limited access to data and bureaucratic inertia also hinder critical scrutiny of drug policies. The article examines two widely used open-source databases, the US International Narcotics Control Strategy Report (INCSR) and the UN World Drug Report (WDR), and discusses their shortcomings in providing accurate and reliable information. The article emphasizes the need for in-depth analysis and caution when using these databases to assess drug trafficking in Africa. The reliability of data on drug trafficking in Africa is highly controversial due to challenges in data collection and sharing. Drug flows often target areas where authorities are unable or unwilling to provide data. The UNODC's methodology heavily relies on state-reported seizures data, which may be deceptive. Additionally, there is a lack of resources and political motivation to collect data on drug prevalence rates in African countries [Extracted from the article]

How does arms availability affect armed conflict? What implications does increased arms availability have for the organisation of armed groups involved in war against the state? This article explores these questions by looking into the civil war in Libya and the subsequent proliferation of weapons in the broader Sahel/North Africa region. Its argument is based on secondary sources: online databases, international organisations reports and news media. First, we examine the question of firearms in Libya in order to understand how changing conditions of weapons availability affected the formation of armed groups during different phases of war hostilities (February-October 2011). We highlight that, as weapons became more readily available to fighters in the field during this period, a process of fragmentation occurred, hindering efforts to build mechanisms that would allow control of the direction of the revolutionary armed movement. Next, as security continued to be a primary challenge in the new Libya, we consider the way in which unaccountable firearms and light weapons have affected the post-war landscape in the period from October 2011 to the end of 2013. Finally, we put the regional and international dimensions under scrutiny, and consider how the proliferation of weapons to nearby insurgencies and armed groups has raised major concern among Libya's neighbours. Short of establishing any causal relationship stricto sensu, we underscore the ways in which weapons from Libya have rekindled or altered local conflicts, creating permissive conditions for new tactical options, and accelerating splintering processes within armed movements in the Sahara-Sahel region. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]