Police officers from 15 countries that are members of Regional Center on Small Arms (RECSA) meeting in Rwanda, have been urged to stay focused on addressing the issues of illegally owned small arms that are a threat to regional security.
The policemen were in the country to hone their knowledge on repair of arms marking tools during a three-day workshop that was held in Gishari Police training center in Rwamagana.
Dusengimana Samuel, legal adviser of RECSA (Regional Centre on Small Arms in the Great Lakes Region, the Horn of Africa and Bordering States) said that the distribution of small arms is a great challenge since it breeds insecurity in the region.
“This is brought about by misuse of these arms. We have also to look beyond killed and hurt individuals to see how it affects the family, jeopardizing economy and health care, displacing people and destabilize learning among others,” he said.
He added that RECSA provides regional trainings and helps member states to adopt Nairobi accords.
The 7th article of Nairobi accords requests every member state to give registration numbers to states’ and private licensed arms to make it easy for authorities to do the monitoring.
He said that the training is the first step since they want to move fast in eliminating illicit supply of arms in the region.
Commissioner for Training, Research and Development in Rwanda National Police (RNP) Cyprien Gatete also explained that; “there is a correlation between peace, security and sustainable development. Development can’t be attained without security. Security is attained with effective monitoring on the distribution of arms that can be used in war, terror acts and theft among others,” he said.
Gatete told trainees that the distribution of small arms has fuelled wars in different countries and threatened security in others. He further requested them to utilize the knowledge acquired to support positive change in their countries.
RECS member states include Burundi, Central African Republic , Congo Brazzaville, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
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