The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) has warned that the easy accessibility of illicit arms and ammunitions is a threat to peace, security and democratic governance in the West African region including Liberia.
UNDP Program Analyst on Governance, James Monibah said the increase in terrorism and armed insecurity in countries neighbouring Liberia is increasingly becoming one of the reasons that businesses deciding not to invest in the ECOWAS region.
Mr. Monibah made the disclosure when he spoke at the end sixth meeting of the national technical committee of the ECOWAS-EU small arms project in Monrovia on Thursday.
He added that number of displaced people and refugees are at the highest since the end of the Second World War.
Quoting the 2016 global peace index, the UNDP official indicated that the number of deaths from conflict over the last 25 years is higher than those killed as a result of terrorism in recent years.
“The sustainable development goal underlined the necessity of a universal recognition of the link between security and development,” he added
He expressed satisfaction with the progress in the implementation of the ECOWAS-EU Small Arms project which has witnessed considerable results in all pilot counties.
The UNDP Governance Program Analyst cautioned Liberia that the success of the project should not be linked only to the number of arms and ammunitions collected; because arms collection is just one of the four important aspects of the project.
“Sensitization of communities and capacity building of stakeholders including, LINSA , the civil society organizations and the security agencies are only important results with long term impart,” Mr. Monibah said.
In remarks, the Deputy Chairperson of the Liberia National Commission on Small Arms, Bennietta Jarbo, said Liberia is making significant progress in the collection of small in several parts of the country.
She called on the international community for more support aimed at taking collection of illicit arms and ammunitions from several none state actors in the communities.
Also speaking, the Resident Representative of the Mano River Union, who coordinates the activities in Liberia, said the proliferation and the misuse of small arms and ammunitions in the region is progressively complex and manufactured phenomenon that affects people some of the countries in West African region.
“By virtue of their easy availability, low cost and manageability, small arms and light weapons have become weapon of choice in most conflict today and have helped raised levels of violence even in areas of peace,” the MRU official said.
“These weapons are the leading contributors to the escalation of a volume of violence and to the militarization of civil society,” he averred; adding:” Most than 1,000 lives are lost each day to small arms violence.”
According to Mr. Jallah, many of the victims are civilians and small arms have a disproportionate, far-reaching and long-lasting impact that extends well past their immediate use in conflict.
Concluding, the MRU Resident Representative maintained that the removal of this threat in the MRU basin , will help to enhance better trade across borders and help sustain the peace that “we all enjoy today”.
During the discussion, an insider at LINSA hinted the News Public Trust that more than 870 small arms and thousands of ammunitions have been collected in counties the project has been implemented.
The meeting, which is the sixth since the implementation of the arms for development began, was graced by representatives of the Armed Forces of Liberia, the Liberia National Police, the Liberia Immigration Service, the National Security Agency .
Other partners at the meeting were the representatives of ECOWAS, the Mano River Union , among others.