Disarmament fails in Horn of Africa

May 30, 2007 (ENTEBBE, Uganda ) — The forceful disarmament of millions of pastoralists in the Horn of Africa region has failed and a new approach must be adopted, officials said here Wednesday.

Delegates at a meeting of the east African peacemaking bloc IGAD, representing Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Sudan and Uganda, said efforts to rid the region of an estimated five million illegal firearms had been irregular and based on poor policies.

“All disarmament programmes are full of challenges and forceful disarmament has not worked,” they said in a statement at the end of a three-day regional workshop by the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development (IGAD).

They also lamented that the drive had caused resentment among the pastoralist communities and strained their relationship with national security officials.

Host country Uganda launched a disarmament drive in the volatile northeast Karamoja region in 2000, which instead resulted in more clashes blamed on the military’s heavy-handedness.

“Disarmament must be seen as part and parcel of the development process and not as a one-off event,” the statement said.

Several Horn of Africa nations are wracked by internal or external conflict, allowing civilians to illegally acquire arms trafficked through unpatrolled borders.

“The decrease in available land for pasture due to the acquisition of land for other activities … has contributed to pastoral communities being involved in clashes against each other,” said Isaac Musumba, Ugandan minister for regional cooperation.

Representatives from the UN development agency, the European Union and the African Union also attended the meeting.

(AFP)