In the past few years there have been armed conflicts in Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), Ethiopia, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan.

Who sells arms to countries in conflict? Someone does, but the data is often murky. The United Nations’ arms embargo on Sudan and the Central African Republic either affects the arms sold to that country or (and this is more likely) affects whether these transactions are documented.

The UN found evidence of arms transferred to areas under embargo like Darfur (Sudan).

For some countries with active conflict the UN issues arms embargoes as a way to mitigate the violence. During these conflicts, arms are often available despite official channels being more heavily monitored, according to data compiled by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute. Blanks in the data and vague information like ‘unknown supplier’ represent these periods of violent conflict where arms may be available but aren’t being formally traded.

Get the data used in this chart on DataDesk