Keywords: Africa, firearms, political conflicts

In Africa, almost every type of light firearm ever produced by the world's arms companies has been used and is still being used: from medieval muzzle-loading muskets (such as the Portuguese muskets in Angola) to modern submachine guns, assault rifles and submachine guns.

A lot of it got to Africa after the end of the First and Second World Wars through third countries. For example, Portugal shipped old captured or unusable small arms to the continent, which it had previously purchased from the victorious powers (the United States, etc.). France and Great Britain also "dumped" obsolete weapons into their colonies.

As a result, in 1952 - 1956, during the suppression of the May-May insurgency in Kenya, both sides used British weapons. During the armed struggle for independence in 1954-1962 in Algeria, many captured Italian, Austrian and German weapons were supplied to the partisans from the Soviet Union through Egypt.

In this way, Mauser and Parabellum pistols from the times of Kaiser and Nazi Germany, Walther P-38 pistols and MP-40 submachine guns (Schmeisser), as well as Mauser rifles and carbines got there.

Both from the USSR and other socialist countries, obsolete captured weapons produced by Germany and its allies during World War II were supplied to Africa - Japanese Arisaka rifles, Austro-Hungarian Steyr-Mannlicher and Austro-Italian Mannlicher-Carcano.

During the years of the national liberation movement and the Angolan civil war (1961-2002), such rare types of still usable firearms, even for Africa, as medieval Portuguese muzzle-loading muskets, were encountered. Sergei Kolomnin, a retired colonel who fought in the country, claimed that he held Portuguese flintlock muskets in his hands, which "the Angolan command got their hands on-these are antiques!.." From pistols, he noted, in Angola there were P-38 Walther, Parabellum produced in 1943-1944: "Apparently, the GDR supplied. Or maybe we are from the captured warehouses. But the P-38s were in excellent condition, all in oil, as if just from the factory..."¹ Poor African countries copy and produce outdated weapons. For example, China has installed Soviet-style equipment for the manufacture of Kalashnikov assault rifles and Kalashnikov machine guns (PKK and PKM) in Zimbabwe, Sudan, Kenya and Tanzania. Poor-quality copies of Soviet weapons are often made in small workshops, sometimes right in the conflict zone.

Since the late 1980s, all sorts of Soviet-made light weapons, as well as those produced in the former Warsaw Pact countries, have been sold to Africa at extremely low prices. These are, in particular, pistols, rifles, submachine guns and machine guns.

As for rifles, French Gras, Berthier and Lebel rifles and carbines are still found in the former French colonies.

In the former English colonies, the British rifle and the Lee-Enfield carbine are still in use.

Both the Soviet-made Mosin rifle and carbine are used, as well as the Simonov self-loading carbine (SKS) (and its Chinese licensed copy).

Lee-Enfield, Mauser and Mosin rifles and carbines remain the most common non-self-loading weapons on the Black continent and are usually used by insurgents in different regions of Africa.

AKM AND IN AFRICA AKM

Among small automatic weapons in the first place in Africa, of course, the Soviet AKM, produced in dozens of countries around the world (from China to Zimbabwe). In recent years, its improved Russian version of the AK-103 has also been delivered there. The second place is shared by the Belgian FN FAL assault rifle and the West German G-3 assault rifle, which were also manufactured under license in various countries around the world, including Argentina, South Africa and the United Kingdom.

The reason why Africa

purchases AKM, retired Colonel V. A. Sagachko, who served in 1988-1990 in the south of Angola, explains as follows::

"It was necessary in practice to dissuade Angolan officers in a vicious opinion about the advantage of enemy weapons because of a larger cartridge. Once, during a commander's fire training class, I heard from a junior officer again: "You see, assessor [adviser], the unitovtsy have a G-3 assault rifle, there is a large cartridge [51 mm cartridge length], and we have a small cartridge [39 mm length] in AKM, so they win sometimes"...

The NATO rifle cartridge [length 51 mm], like our Soviet rifle cartridge [length 54 mm], is much more powerful than the submachine gun... A rifle bullet flies at a distance of up to 5 km, maintaining a lethal effect of up to 3 km, and an automatic bullet from AK [AKM] at a distance of up to 3 km, maintaining a lethal effect of up to 1.5 km. But after all, the fire battle is conducted at a distance of 300-600 m, then the fire of small arms, except for machine guns, is not effective. And in the forest and on rough terrain, the distance of fire contact is much less...

So, after such a ridiculous statement, I ordered the guards to bring me all the submachine guns and assault rifles... I gave the order to the officers to dismantle their weapons and move to the firing positions.

They loaded all these weapons and started shooting at targets on command. Then I say, " Stop! Discharge your weapons! Disconnect stores! Weapons on the ground! Three steps back!"

And there the terrain is sandy. I walked around on this weapon with my feet, kicked it in the sand. Then I give the command again: "The enemy is attacking! To arms! Charge it! Fire!"

Not a single sample of weapons, except for the Kalashnikov assault rifle and its modifications, as well as the PPSh-41 and PPS-43 [submachine guns], was able to shoot! The [West German assault rifle] G-3 was particularly bad. It has a roller shutter. A grain of sand got there - and that's it. And the shutter of the G-3 had to be opened with a hammer. The only thing that still fired, besides the Kalashnikov, was the Belgian [Belgian assault rifle] FAL [FN FAL], but only with single shots, with manual reloading... And the Kalashnikov - if only the cartridge went into the chamber. If it doesn't come in, then twist the bolt a couple of times, thereby removing the sand from the chamber, and you can shoot further... After such a check of weapons, I ask the Angolan officers: "Well, what? Which weapon is better to fight with - Soviet or Unite?"

"Oh, camarada assesor! Sovietiko arma muito fights! Arma de enemigu no presta!" (Oh, Comrade Adviser! Soviet weapons are very good! The enemy's weapon is bad!)²

Of the hand-held machine guns, the most widely distributed in Africa are the Soviet-made PKK (RPKM), the old Degtyarev hand-held machine gun (RPD) and its PRDM variant, the more powerful Kalashnikov PK (PKM) machine guns of Soviet and Chinese production, as well as the Belgian FN MAG machine gun.

It is the Soviet (Russian) PKM single machine gun and the Belgian FN MAG that share the first place on the Black continent among machine guns in terms of prevalence. Heavy Soviet machine guns are also widely used - DShKM and NSV "Utes", Soviet/Russian KPV (KPVT) and their Chinese counterparts, as well as the American Browning (M2HB) and its variants produced in England, Belgium and other countries.

Pistols, including more than 100-year-old ones, are in circulation mainly among tribal leaders and local "criminal authorities" who used or are using Spanish Astra and Star, Austrian Glock, TT-33 and PM pistols( Makarov pistol), Soviet or Chinese-made Stechkin submachine gun, Swiss Sig-Sauer pistols, Italian Beretta pistols, Belgian Browning pistols and American Colt pistols.

Of the sniper rifles used in Africa, the first three places are shared by the Soviet (Russian) SVD (Dragunov sniper rifle), the American Remington 700 and the French FRF1.

I must say that the peculiarity of the African arms market is its "impassability" for most modern types of light weapons. And the point is not even in its high price, but in the fact that modern "sophisticated" weapons quickly break down or completely fail in severe climatic conditions and because of the sloppy attitude to weapons of junior personnel.

In recent years, either cheap Chinese models of weapons (called "disposable" by military specialists - they say that ordinary soldiers will quickly break them anyway), or Soviet (Russian) models of weapons, which are not so easy to break, have been purposefully purchased.

Another reason for the widespread use of Chinese "clones" of Soviet light weapons (especially in East Africa) is the interdependence between China's provision of economic assistance to African countries, usually amounting to billions of dollars, and the volume of purchases of Chinese weapons or their production under the Chinese license on the spot.

It must be said that weapons only exacerbate Africa's many problems, although it is often the presence of large amounts of weapons by parties to conflicts and wars that keeps them from escalating.

¹ Cuito Cuanavale. Unknown War. Memoirs of war veterans in Angola, Moscow, 2008, p. 286.

² Ibid., pp. 242-244.

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