• Military Menu                       

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Industry
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• WMD
• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs

CENTRAL AFRICAN REPUBLIC: 50,000 illegal guns still in circulation

BANGUI, 6 October 2003 (IRIN) - Some 50,000 firearms are still circulating illegally in the Central African Republic (CAR), constituting a threat to the nation's stability and to general elections scheduled for January 2005, army General Xavier Yangongo told IRIN on Saturday.

"We need external support to recover all these arms," Yangongo, who heads the Peace and Security Commission at the ongoing national reconciliation talks, said.

He said a request for aid had already been made to the World Bank and to the European Community. In its report to a visiting UN delegation in June, the government said it needed some 650 million francs CFA (US $1.08 million) for disarmament and the recovery of firearms.

Yangongo said that those arms started going missing from barracks during the mutinies of 1996-1997. However, he said, the situation was worsened by the infusion of guns from what was then the rebel-controlled northern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo; from southern Chad, where armed groups conducted cross border incursions into the CAR; and from rebel-held southern Sudan.

In addition, Yangongo said, the activity of highwaymen robbers had intensified. He added that Karaco, Balawa and Saraoui militiamen who fought alongside President Ange-Felix Patasse during the mutinies were still armed and active in Bangui.
Yangongo said the Ministry of Defence was working with the Disarmament, Demobilisation, and Reinsertion programme of the UN Development Programme and the regional force of the Economic and Monetary Community of Central African States to disarm illegal holders of weapons.

In its report to the national reconciliation conference, the Defence and Security Commission recommended that the electoral calendar be pushed back to 2006 to allow the military to recover the guns before the elections.

Theme(s): (IRIN) Conflict

[ENDS]

The material contained on this Web site comes to you via IRIN, a UN humanitarian information unit, but may not necessarily reflect the views of the United Nations or its agencies. If you re-print, copy, archive or re-post any item on this site, please retain this credit and disclaimer. Quotations or extracts should include attribution to the original sources. All graphics and Images on this site may not be re-produced without the express permission of the original owner. All materials copyright © UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs 2003