Central Africa vs. Arms control and pacification

By on March 24, 2010
The control of weapons is complicated by the limitations of national and regional capacities in the sub-region of Central Africa, because of “porous borders and overflow effects of regional conflicts”
The traffic and circulation of these weapons have all kinds of humanitarian, economic and social problems, including the security of civilians. They fuel armed conflicts, which in turn, increase gender-based violence and recruitment of child soldiers and pose a serious threat to reconciliation, security, stability and sustainable peace.

“For the past 15 years, 7 million small arms have been circulating in Central Africa, and only 45% are under effective control or have been destroyed”.
To reverse this trend, it ask to keep on the demobilization, disarmament and reintegration (DDR) process, conducted with the support of the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and the European Union and closely associated with the current reforms of security in troubled countries. These reforms include the permeability of borders, the security forces’ inability, or lack of confidence and trust weakened by many years of bloody conflicts.
The annual turnover of small arms trafficking is between 200 and 300 million dollars, representing «20% of licit trade in these weapons”. This shows and proves that the movements and financial arrangements to which the traffickers use to conduct transactions are so complex.
Best examples are the disarmament programs launched, in the DRC and the RCA in recent years, to purchase arms from former rebels. These actions have not yet yielded conclusive results in the fight against trafficking in small arms in the sub-region.

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