Launch of Africa Amnesty Month: Gov’t Commits to Fight Illicit Flow of Small Arms

 By Doh Bertrand Nua in Yaounde
The Minister of External Relations has said government is more than ever before committed to wage a war against the flow of small arms and light weapons across the national territory.
    Lejeune Mbella Mbella made the revelation Monday 19 October 2020 while presiding over the official launch of the African Amnesty Month in Cameroon (SEPTAMM2020). The event at the Yaounde Hilton Hotel was under the theme “Silencing the Guns: a pledge to our future generations on the continent.”
    

Gov’t officials & other participants at the launching ceremony

He disclosed an estimated 100 million arms is in circulation in Africa with over 40 million owned by civilians with very few having the licence to own them. This poses a major problem for governments as weapons that elude control continue to flow in the continent, leading to conflicts and wars.
    Mbelle Mbella said in addition to participating in the AU-UN initiative to silence guns on the continent, the Cameroon government has also created specialised demobilisation and disarmament centres to encourage citizens bearing arms to voluntarily hand them over.
    He said the support from AU and UN to African States through the project is a great opportunity to work in a coherent and sustainable way towards the reduction of illicit possession of small arms and light weapons.
    Mbella Mbella said the initiative is an opportunity to promote peace and carry out awareness programs to educate the public on the dangers of illicit weapons and to reinforce the capacity of national actors fighting the illicit flow of small arms.
He said government will soon launch a nationwide capacity building workshop to refresh key actors charged with control of weapons, sensitise women on their role in the fight as well as launch a media sensitisation campaign on the dangers of owning illicit weapons.
    Ngalim Eugene, Executive Director of Cameroon Youths and Students Forum for Peace (CAMYOSFOP) who doubles as Cameroon’s Representative to the Africa Economic, Social and Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) – an organ task with implementing AU policies through submission of advisory opinions, used the event to underscore the role played by civil societies in the adoption of the Amnesty Month by the Peace and Security Council (PSC) and the Assembly of Heads of States of the AU.
    “The relevance of the civil society stems from the fact that she is the intermediary between the grassroots and the government but most importantly because she is directly in touch with the grassroots, serving as their mouth piece and in a position to transmit the reality on the ground to policy makers,” Ngalim said.
    He said the CAMYOSFOP has been at the fore, mobilising the public through activities including capacity buildings on arms control alongside the Cameroon Action Network on Small Arms, CANSA.
    Other speakers including General Bardeldin Elamin Abdelgadir Mohamed, Executive Secretary of the Regional Centre on Small Arms (RECSA), and Dr. Ivor Richard Fung, Representative of the United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (UNODA) took turns to highlight the importance of the programme and dangers pose by the illicit flow of weapons.
    Dr. Fung said UNODA is assisting the AU in four key areas including; an enlarge sensitisation on the illicit flow of weapons, the dangers it has to progress and other social aspects, collection of the illicit weapons, destroying them and promoting community policing with hope that security officers can create a symbiotic relationship with the population in the community which they are called upon to secure and check flow of arms.