During 2023, 14 United Nations arms embargoes and 22 European Union (EU) arms embargoes were in force. No new multilateral arms embargoes were imposed in 2023, although the UN embargo on Somalia was repurposed as an arms embargo that applies exclusively to the al-Shabab armed group. Disagreements remained—mainly between China and Russia (along with several African states) on one side, and the other permanent UN Security Council members on the other—over the general use of sanctions and the particular controls on arms procurement by government forces in the Central African Republic, South Sudan and Sudan. The efficacy of UN arms embargoes remained under strain in 2023, amid widespread allegations that Russia procured weapons from North Korea and the continued ineffectiveness of the embargo on Libya.
The independent resource on global security