Programmes Focus on Weapons Control, Community Security

Collaborative programmes to reduce the proliferation of light weapons are making progress in helping stabilise communities and improve security across Darfur.

By Sharon Lukunka

Protecting civilians, facilitating the provision of humanitarian assistance across the region and contributing to a secure environment for economic reconstruction and development form the core mandate of the African Union-United Nations Mission in Darfur (UNAMID). While Mission personnel are working to implement each aspect of the mandate, one of the major challenges the Mission faces in contributing to peace and security here is the proliferation of small arms and other light weapons that pose a threat not only to civilians but also to Mission personnel and humanitarian workers.

Currently, across the UN, seven peacekeeping missions and three political missions have mandates related to small arms. The widespread proliferation of light weapons continues to affect the work of UN peacekeepers in several contexts. For example, illicit small arms are contributing to security issues ranging from armed rebel groups in northern Mali to cattle rustlers in South Sudan.

The recent Secretary-General’s report on small arms (S/2013/503) provides an update on the detrimental impact that the circulation of illicit small arms has on global peace and security. The report indicates that an estimated 875 million small arms are in circulation worldwide, many of which are in the hands of insurgents, pirates, terrorists, transnational organized crime syndicates and armed gangs. Because they are inexpensive, portable and easy to conceal, the illicit trafficking of small arms presents a difficult and pervasive problem around the world.

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On 19 May 2014 in El Sereif, North Darfur, a civilian walks with a weapon beside his friends to attend a cultural and sports event organized by UNAMID as part of a Darfur-wide “We Need Peace Now” campaign. Photo by Albert González Farran, UNAMID.