{{Ministers in Charge of Internal Security from the Regional Centre on Small Arms (RECSA) member states are in Kigali reviewing the security status in the region with a call for states to honor their obligations for the body to effectives run its activities.}}
Dr. Francis K Sang, RECSA executive secretary said, “The easy availability of illegal arms to non-states actors has both direct and indirect effects on citizens and countries as a whole.”
He appealed to member countries to honor their financial support to enhance the capacity of RECSA to be ably control and manage arms in the region.
Rwanda’s Minister of Internal Security, Sheikh Musa Fazil Harelimana, while officially opening the meeting, pledged his country’s support to further implement the Nairobi protocol on Small Arms, of which Rwanda is a signatory.
“The fight against the proliferation of illegal small arms continues in the country and through collaboration with RECSA and other partners, we are seeing positive results,” Minister Harelimana, who is also the sitting chair of RECSA council of Ministers and the Technical Advisory Committee, said.
The Nairobi Protocol requires RECSA member states to adopt measures to prevent, control and reduce SALW within the Great Lakes Region, the Horn of Africa and bordering states.
Rwanda is among the few countries that have implemented the protocol and other declarations, which have seen laws relating to arms adopted, conducting of disarmament operations as well as destruction of illicit arms.
Rwanda has also marked and registered all its arms, an exercise headed and conducted by Rwanda National Police (RNP).
The body brings together fifteen African countries which are; Burundi, the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Seychelles, Sudan, Somalia, South Sudan, Tanzania, the Republic of Congo, Uganda and the host, Rwanda.
{(R) Rwanda’s Minister of Internal Security, Sheikh Musa Fazil and his counterparts at the opening of the meeting.}
{RNP}
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