Fighting Small Arms and Light Weapons: Cameroon on the Offensive

Cameroon has intensified its fight against the use of small arms and light weapons (SALW) by civilians with the launching of the Amnesty Month this October 19, 2020.

The Minister of External Relations, Lejeune Mbella Mbella launched the 2020 Amnesty Month with focus on the theme, “Silencing the Guns: A pledge to our future generations on the continent”.

Impact Of Illicit Arms And Light Weapons In Africa

Statistics indicate that civilians hold more than 40 million small arms which accounts for about 80% of all small arms on the continent.

In addition to this, only about 14.6% of these arms are officially registered, about 40% unregistered and the status of the rest, unclear.

Added to such statistics, experts say small arms are enablers of violence and are a serious threat to peace, security and stability in Africa.

Data available indicates that small arms account for the death of a quarter of a million people yearly.

The statistics further reveal that young people especially suffer from gun violence with homicide being the leading cause of death in people aged 10 to 29 years.

Women and girls it should be mentioned, usually tend to be the primary victims of homicides due to violence perpetrated by husbands or boyfriends.

The use of illicit weapons also disrupts livelihoods and economic activities, destroys infrastructure and makes inter-communal conflicts and competition over natural resources more deadly.

Cameroon’s Representative to the African Union Economic, Social and Cultural Council, Eugine Ngalim Nyuydine explains that, “Once arms are in wrong hands, it is difficult to regulate the situation. Moreover, it will take a longer time to rebuild what has been destroyed by arms in just a few minutes.”

About the Africa Amnesty Month

In 2013, the African Union member states took the commitment to silence the guns in Africa by 2020 so as to achieve a conflict-free Africa.

To buttress this initiative, the AU in 2016 developed a roadmap to achieve the silencing of guns and in 2017 AU member countries declared September as the Africa Amnesty Month till 2020.

In order to accelerate the progress towards silencing guns, a campaign was launched in March 2020 in Addis Ababa with theme, “Silencing the Guns in Africa: Creating Conducive Conditions for Africa’s Development”.

Conclusively, peace crusaders warn that, “As long as the guns are not silent in many parts of Africa, the future of young generations is at stake.”

Eleanor Ayuketah Ngochi

Laisser un commentaire

Votre adresse e-mail ne sera pas publiée. Les champs obligatoires sont indiqués avec *

Ce site utilise Akismet pour réduire les indésirables. En savoir plus sur comment les données de vos commentaires sont utilisées.