South African authorities seize Russian ship bound for Nigeria packed with arms and ammunition

SOUTH African authorities have impounded a Russian Nigerian-bound ship at the Port of Nura near Port Elizabeth City loaded with arms and ammunition that were stacked into 20 containers.

In what is now becoming routine, illegal weapons are shipped to Nigeria from abroad as politicians arm youths and rebel groups to strengthen their power bases. It is not certain where the latest cache of weapons was coming from but following a tip-off, the South African authorities intercepted the cargo ship named Lada and have detained the crew for questioning.

An investigation by South Africa’s criminal investigation organisation known as The Hawks revealed that the cargo was heading for Nigeria’s commercial city Lagos and the US. In recent times, security agencies and the Nigeria Customs Service (NCS) have been intercepting illegal arms and ammunition in large consignments at the nation’s ports.

Lada  had sailed since May from Ust-Luga on Russia's Baltic sea, visiting India, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Kenya, Mozambique and Tanzania ports prior to its arrival in South Africa. Investigations are still ongoing to ascertain where the weapons originated from and who they were being shipped to in Nigeria

A total of 21.5m arms and ammunition were shipped into Nigeria illegally between 2010 and 2017, according to data obtained from NCS headquarters. A cache of 21,407 live ammunition was intercepted at the Apapa port in Lagos in November 2010, while 1,100 pump action guns were seized at Tin Can Port, also in Lagos, in September, 2017.

Since the beginning of this year, several caches of arms have also been seized. This month, a container-load of fake military camouflage was seized in Port Harcourt while 23 cartons of 460 pairs of military boots were impounded  by the NCS.