ECOWAS, ICRC blame conflicts on small arms

Nigeria, others yet to raise commission

CONFLICTS in the West African sub-region may continue unless governments in this area take urgent steps to stem the proliferation of small arms, the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) have warned.

Giving the warning in Abuja yesterday at the opening of the final roundtable on the Arms Trade Treaty, the Head of ECOWAS Small Arms Division, Dr. Agnekethon Cyriaque, said the sub-region still lacked the political will to take necessary steps to stem the tide of small arms movement across the region.

His words: “There are many challenges promoting the proliferation of small arms in the region and the most formidable is the institutional challenge. Despite the fact that the heads of state in the sub-region decided in 1998 to establish National Commission on Small Arms to tackle peacekeeping issues, there are still some member states who are yet to implement this declaration. In case of Nigeria, it has established a committee and the processes are on to transform it into a commission. Even some countries that have established these commissions in their countries have not funded them to carry out their mandates satisfactorily.”

He further posited that that lack of coordination among the various security agencies and bodies remained a challenge, saying, “small arms issues are cross-cutting into the police, immigration, army, navy, air force and the likes and in most cases there is still this lack of coordination of security apparatus to deal with small arms trade challenge.”