2nd Forum on Small Arms and Light Weapons Mgmt. and Control underway in Bishoftu town

Addis Ababa, November 23, 2022 (FBC) – The second National Forum on Small Arms and Light Weapons Management and Control is being held in Bischoftu town.

Ministries of National Defense and Peace, Customs Commission and National Intelligence and Security Service, federal and regional Police commissioners, heads of regional and city administrations’ security bureaus and international and regional stakeholders are in attendance of the forum.

Ethiopian Federal Police Commissioner General Demelash Gebremichael stated that the forum has been organized in cooperation with the East African Small Arms Control Regional Coordination Bureau, Bonn International Center for Conflict Studies, a German organization and the African Union.

Ethiopia signed the Nairobi Declaration in 2004 as a frontrunner to ensure weapons management and control system, and endorsed a decree on arms management and control in 2020, he said.

The Ethiopian Federal Police, using the authority it has been given under the decree, has prepared and approved the implementation guidelines for the decree, the Commissioner General said, adding that the forum will contribute to effectiveness of the implementation of the law.

He said small and light weapons are being smuggled into the country from neighboring countries, and are being distributed to different areas fueling some conflicts.

In coordinated operations, the national security taskforce has captured thousands of illegal arms which were smuggled to the nation, the Commissioner General added.

The federal has embarked on control of arms trafficking in border areas using advanced technologies, he noted.