It is not an over-statement to say that small arms in Africa have played the major role in every political conflict, from South, East and West Africa. Baffour Dokyi Amoa writes that “Conservative estimates indicate that there are about eight million small arms and light weapons in West Africa alone. Of the 640 million small arms circulating in the world, it is estimated that 100 million are found in Africa.”

In Africa the issue of small arms is important. It is a matter of life and death. It is not an exaggeration to say that small arms have contributed to the political disintegration of many African countries. The effects of the proliferation of small arms are felt by many Africans. In many African countries, there are no people to till arable lands, and generations waste their lives by engaging in pointless wars. Children are denied their childhood and are forced to become adults before puberty.

Despite all these, the resilience of the African people is demonstrated by the number of activists and other leaders who risk their lives for peaceful change.

Let me make it clear that my argument is not against the right of sovereign States to manufacture and/or acquire small arms for defence and security purposes within internationally accepted laws and frameworks. The objection raised by civil society to arms proliferation is not against the legal possession of guns when their possession and use does not indiscriminately violate the human rights of others. Our concern is the lack of an international framework to curb the proliferation of small arms and light weapons, which kill and maim unarmed and innocent civilians.

In most countries, where there is civil strife, small arms are trafficked through cross border illicit activities such as smuggling. Elsewhere, food for arms seems to be gaining currency.

To substantiate my argument against small arms, let me submit some statistics . [1] At present, there are about 640 million small arms in the world, one for every ten people on earth. The majority, 59% are in the hands of civilians. Further, 38% are owned by government armed forces, 2.8% by police and 0.2% by armed groups. The gun trade is worth US$4 billion a year, of which up to US$1 billion may be unauthorised or illicit. Eight million new guns are manufactured every year by at least 1,249 companies in 92 countries. Ten to 14 billion units of ammunition are manufactured every year, which is enough to kill every person in the world twice over.

It is interesting to note that illicit guns start out in the legal trade. Statistics reveal that 80% of the guns used in crime in Mexico were legally acquired in the US. Similarly, 72% of the guns used in crime in Rio de Janeiro were once legally owned in Brazil.

A thousand people a day die as a result of guns. Of these 1000 deaths, on average 560 are criminal homicides, 250 are direct war deaths; 140 are suicides, while 50 are accidents or cases of undetermined intent. Three people are wounded for every one killed. Small arms are responsible for 60-90% of the direct conflict deaths that occur each year. Tens of thousands of children are armed and are fighting in more than 20 conflicts around the world.

Conservative estimates indicate that there are about eight million small arms and light weapons in West Africa alone. Of the 640 million small arms circulating in the world, it is estimated that 100 million are found in Africa. Several regions of Africa have made and continue to make efforts to curb the proliferation of small arms, such at the West Africa Moratorium on Importation, the Exportation and Manufacture of Small Arms initiated by civil society, which has now adopted as a Convention awaiting ratification by Member States of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

To be fair, African governments are making efforts to deal with the menace caused by small arms; however, their efforts are undermined by arms brokers and governments with expansionist aspirations who push small arms into the hands of “non-state actors” for personal gain. These non-state actors usually push the same agenda from one country to another, and that is to gain control over an area with valuable mineral resource.

The international community could play a vital role in curbing the proliferation of small arms. The international community ought to challenge the small arms manufacturers and to put pressure on them to slow down with the production of small arms. The UN Review Conference on Small Arms, which was held in June 2006 in New York, did not achieve the desired results, and so much effort is still needed to secure agreement on how to curb the proliferation of small arms and light weapons.

Children and armed conflict

Children are a wonderful gift of God to humanity. Why should any one be allowed by society to abuse innocent children just to achieve callous personal ambition? Why should society look away when poor and fragile youngsters are violently forced to maim and be maimed?

The UN Security Council Resolutions 1612 should be commended. It behoves policy makers and diplomats, as well as civil society movements, to demand that the protection of children from small arms be enforced. . [2]

When children are sucked into the vortex of armed violence, society suffers the consequences far beyond the current generation. For the generation that was denied the opportunity to experience childhood and education, illiteracy limits them, low economic productivity become their way of life, and breakdown of law and order defines them.

Boutros Boutros-Ghali, then United Nations Secretary-General, said in his agenda for Peace in 1995: “The sources of conflict and war are pervasive and deep. To reach them will require our utmost effort to enhance respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, to promote sustainable economic and social development for wider prosperity, to alleviate distress and to curtail the existence and use of massively destructive weapons.” [3] Graça Machel’s UN Report on Impact of Armed Conflict on Children [4] noted child soldiers are an affront to humanity.

Much-needed resources for development are set aside for post war maintenance activities. For instance, the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) had to launch a US$7 million emergency appeal for Liberia to put 750 000 children back in school. A programme had to be mounted to demobilise about 15 000 child soldiers in Liberia. As things stand, only 51% of school-going age children are actually attending school in Liberia. [5]

Even in peaceful countries, there are many thousands of children taking part in organized armed violence using small arms. Children patrol group territories openly armed in parts of Brazil, Colombia, Nigeria, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Philippines, and other places. Small arms become seen as as symbols of power, dominance, and worth. Children in such communities grow up believing that violence, especially from using small arms and light weapons, is essential for gaining power, obtaining goods and services, and establishing respect, thus perpetuating the culture of violence. [6]

Religion, Children and Armed Conflict

When people exist in a space where human beings are slaughtered like sheep, where women and young girls are raped and maimed with impunity, where children are exploited and are forcibly turned into soldiers, many turn to religion. Religion offers these people hope and religion helps these people deal with the pain of losing loved ones.

Faith-based organisations continue to provide assistance to the victims of war and to the poor according to the tenets of the religion they subscribe to. When conflict explodes and disaster strikes, it is normally religious groups that commence with humanitarian activities before the international aid groups appear on the scene.

There are several countries where faith based organisations have proven themselves by responding with such efficiency that even the UN has shown an interest in forming partnerships with these communities. Such collaboration ought to be structured, formalised and implemented globally. It is time to build strategic partnerships to fulfil the call of Graça Machel that whatever the causes, the time has come to call a halt and affirm that “attacks on children are intolerable and unacceptable.” [7]

• Baffour Dokyi Amoa is the Chairman of the West Africa Action Network on Small Arms (WAANSA) and the President of the Africa Forum on Small Arms (AFonSA)
• Please send comments to or comment online at www.pambazuka.org

UNHCR's Refworld allows easy access to reliable and up-to-date information related to refugees and human rights. It has been referred to as a "refugee encyclopedia", as it contains documents ranging from background country reports to legal position papers, guidelines and statistics.

Race remains our national obsession — even when we talk of it in code. And so issues which clearly reflect our racial divides are more likely to be seen by all of us, and to command our attention: witness last week’s dispute about company employment equity reports.

The Islamic Courts headquartered in Mogadishu have for the first time announced they would open training camps for Mogadishu's public school pupils for preparation of holy war against the foreign peacekeepers expected to arrive in Somalia early October. Fu'ad Mohammed Kalaf, the head of the Islamc Courts education section, said, "We are in process of readying the students to engage in the "jihad" war and we have opened training camps for the students in Mogadishu", said Fu,ad.

SIAVONGA district health acting director Dr Joseph Kabungo has urged government to complete the construction of the maternity ward at the district hospital. In an interview, Dr Kabungo said it was not right for expectant mothers to be using the general female admission ward for delivery.

When adults wage war, children pay the highest price. Children are the primary victims of armed conflict. They are both its targets and increasingly its instruments. Their suffering bears many faces, in the midst of armed conflict and its aftermath. Children are killed or maimed, made orphans, abducted, deprived of education and health care, and left with deep emotional scars and trauma.

The government of Uganda and the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) have agreed to end two decades of hostilities in the northern part of the country. This is good news. But, only serious international pressure can ensure that the Juba talks progress into a definite peace. The regime of Youweri Museveni has invested massively in a campaign of deception and disinformation, aimed at concealing a methodical and comprehensive genocide in northern Uganda, conceived and conducted by the government.

Cote d'Ivoire’s President Laurent Gbagbo has said he believes the UN roadmap meant to bring peace to the country has “failed” and he will not attend a United Nations meeting in New York next week that was meant to yield a new way forward. "It is four years now that we are in this process and we are not reaching peace. That means the process has failed," Gbagbo told hundreds of army troops invited to a meeting at the presidential palace in the main city Abidjan on Thursday evening.

Uganda would continue to respect a landmark truce with the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) that expires shortly, ahead of a review to be instituted right away, the government’s chief negotiator said. Interior Minister Ruhakana Rugunda told a press conference in Kampala on Tuesday that the truce would remain in force until his team met the LRA in Juba this week.

"As you crawl through the tiny hole, using your arms and fingers to scratch, there's not enough space to dig properly and you get badly grazed all over. And then, when you do finally come back out with the cassiterite, the soldiers are waiting to grab it at gunpoint. Which means you have nothing to buy food with. So we're always hungry."

Nkrumah Mushelenga, who in June was appointed as Commissioner of Refugees at Home Affairs and Immigration, faces an uphill task to ensure he fulfills the Namibia Refugee Recognition Control Act and other conventions on refugees. Thus far, he has issued a five-point directive of what he terms core values to be strictly adhered to by refugee administrative staff under his command and to make sure their conduct either on or off-duty complies with and reflects the values of the 1951 UN Geneva Convention and the OAU Convention governing specific aspects of African refugees.

At least 22,000 Somali refugees have arrived in Kenya since the beginning of this year to join 130,000 others others who have lived in refugee camps in the remote, arid Dadaab area in the country's Northeastern Province since 1991. Although most of the new arrivals early this year fled because of food shortages after the drought, people also sought to escape the warfare that engulfed Mogadishu from February to June as the Union of Islamic Courts (UIC) fought and eventually dislodged an alliance of warlords from the city.

Part of Kenyan President Kibaki's re-election strategy is to weaken civil society, if not kill this country’s once-powerful civil society movement, reports the East African Standard. In addition to the government's publicly stated intention to reduce the powers of the Electoral Commission of Kenya (ECK), the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC) and the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) are preparing abuses of maladmistration charges against Mr Maina Kiai, the KNCHR chairman.

The concern shared by some locals in Uganda that International Criminal Court (ICC) indictments against leaders of the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA) could jeopardize the peace process in the country's north do not outweigh the need to ensure there is no impunity for mass murder, the top United Nations humanitarian official has said.

Chartered planes have started flying illegal African immigrants back from Spain to Senegal, resuming a repatriation program aimed at stemming the flow of immigrants to this southern European country. But judging by experience, the return is unlikely to stop thousands of others from risking their lives in small boats to reach the Canary Islands from the West African coast, or finding other perilous ways of reaching the European continent.

Conservative MPs are on a collision course with a Constitutional Court ruling granting same-sex unions the same rights as traditional marriages. This time they are up in arms over a homosexual couple being able to adopt a “girl child”. For the second time in as many weeks MPs have objected to the Civil Union Bill, which has now been officially introduced to Parliament.

The beating stopped as the sun began to go down. After two-and-a-half hours, the fourteen men and one woman held at Matapi police station in Mbare township, Harare, had suffered five fractured arms, seven hand fractures, two sets of ruptured eardrums, fifteen cases of severe buttock injuries, deep soft-tissue bruising all over, and open lacerations.

In the next few days IRIN will be releasing the latest of its short documentary films and we are requesting subscribers to order online as per the link below if they wish to receive a copy.In the context of the current peace talks being held between the Ugandan Government and the rebel Lord's Resistance Army, IRIN's award-winning Film Unit is launching a short film examining how the country will move on from the experience of two decades of year.

Prosecutor's Response to Cassese's Observation on Issues Concerning the Protection of Victims and the Preservation of Evidence in the Proceedings on Darfur Pending before the ICC.

Last year, the UK’s ‘Sunday Herald Online’ reported that “… thousands of strong, young men at the razor-wire frontiers of these half-forgotten Spanish possessions launched their most spectacular raid yet upon fortress Europe...” Sokari Ekine explains that what drives most Africans to abandon their countries of origin is poverty and civil strife. She argues that the response of most Western European countries to the problem is influenced by cultural prejudice against those from the so-called “Third World”.

It is reported that 20,000 men, women and children have reached the shores of Spain since the beginning of the year, with over 1300 arriving two weekends ago. In eight months the numbers are three times bigger compared to last year. Those that make it to the shore, often swimming the last 100 meters, arrive half dead scattered on beaches amongst the sunbathing tourists.

In an article entitled " The Canaries, The Threatened Paradise," Spanish daily El Pais wrote: “What years ago a was slow and distant dripping of pateras (wooden boats), disembarking ten, twelve Moroccans, Senegalese, Guineanos or Gambians on beaches of Fuerteventura, has become an almost daily arrival of boats with 80, 90, the 100 or most sub-Saharans.” Arguments are breaking out between the various provincial and city governments over the numbers of migrants each is willing to accept from the two landing points, the Canaries and Andalusia. So far the number of people who have been deported to their countries of origin is about 1800.

There are layers of realities around immigration in Spain and Europe. The country has benefited from cheap Moroccan and West Africa labour on construction sites and in their agricultural sector, which has resulted in a 2.6% growth in the economy over the past 10 years. It is projected that without immigrant labour it would have fallen by 0.6% annually. Similar growth figures apply for the whole of Europe.

As long as Spain continues to reap benefits from cheap labour, the Spanish government’s rhetoric that it will not tolerate the continued arrival of migrants cannot be taken very seriously. The difference between today and a year ago can be explained in terms of numbers.

Another reality for the Spanish is that they are just waking up to the fact that Spain is the geographical space where Europe “almost kisses Africa” (Caryl Phillips, The European Tribe), or is it the other way around? The contrast between Spain and Africa is remarkable. The poverty existence of those who inhabit the latter and the wealthy existence of the Spanish is what prompts many to cross the Mediterranean in rickety launches. For some of these people, it is as if Spain is a promised land.

Some leave their own countries because of wars and endless conflicts. And it must be pointed out that for every migrant, illegal or legal, there are whole families - and in some cases communities - that survive on the reparations of those who make the crossing.

Spain and the EU are presently initiating a number of projects and policies in an attempt to slow down, and eventually stop, the migration of Africans to their shores. However, the polices being proposed are like using a rag to stop a dripping tap - cheap, temporary with no substance. This begs the question: are these policies aimed at reducing the numbers or spreading out the arrivals rather than stopping immigration altogether?

A Spanish NGO is opening a school in Senegal for 800 students. The aim is to educate both women (who make up 50% of the school population) and men. The ultimate goal of the school is to impart skills to theses young people so that they find employment in their countries of origin, rather than be compelled to cross the Mediterranean Sea to Europe.

There are millions of young people presently trying to migrate to the North - this new policy would have to be replicated hundreds of times in countries throughout West, North and East Africa as well as South East Asia, the Middle East and beyond. The school is a positive step but the reality is that it is a bag of flour amongst a million hungry people.

In July, in a further sign of desperation, the Spanish government signed an unprecedented agreement with Senegal to allow the Guardia Civil to patrol Senegalese waters to prevent migrants from leaving their homeland. The EU is planning and funding a series of transit camps across the continent and North Africa (from Ukraine to Libya) as part of a holistic “system of control” along with the Schengen agreement, the closing of the two Spanish enclaves in Morocco, Ceuta and Melilla, that will effectively “barbed wire” Europe.

The contradiction is that many European countries such as Britain and Spain are in desperate need of increased migration due to falling birthrates and emigration of their own indigenous citizens. There are some 4 million Spanish people working abroad and only 2 million foreigners in Spain. The way around the need for migrant labour - professional, skilled and unskilled - is to present “legal” immigration in terms of economics and meeting temporary needs, whilst using asylum seekers and refugees as a way of rejecting “illegal” migration on ethnic and nationalistic grounds.

There is no doubt that Spanish and European immigration policies have a strong racial element. Are these new policies directed towards stopping African migrants, a response to the availability of cheap labour from Romania and Bulgaria? It is important to note that these two countries are soon going to be joining EU.

I do not think Spain has reached saturation point in its need for cheap labour but now African people are having to compete for jobs with Eastern European people who are also arriving in large numbers.

Obviously the lure of hard cash made in Spain drives the migrants to risk their lives (often repeatedly) to reach Europe. One of the worst tragedies started last Christmas, when about 53 Senegalese, most from the village of Casamance, left by boat from Cabo Verde to the Canaries. The boat was relatively large but had no cover or shade. There appears to have been some chaos around the departure of the boat as apparently the Spaniard in charge jumped ship at the last minute. It is reported that five of the Senegalese also left the boat and another got scared after the boat set off and jumped out and swam back to shore.

The boat is thought to have passed Mauritania but when it reached Nuadibu (Nuadhibou, Mauritania) there was a storm and the passengers lost control of the boat. They then started to call friends and family. One of the people they called was a Spanish pirate. A few hours later they were rescued by another boat which towed them to the middle of the ocean and then abandoned them. They only had 40 litres of fuel, which ran out, and, as if this was not enough, they had to cope with the storms and high seas of the Atlantic.

It is reported that there were a series of storms, with one approximately every ten days, and high winds pushed the boat towards Barbados over a four-month period. The people died of hunger and thirst with bodies being thrown overboard one by one as they died.

There are many West Africans who have been able to create a successful life in Spain and elsewhere in Europe but also many who remain impoverished and vulnerable. Interestingly, I was fortunate enough to have a chat recently with a person who arrived by boat two months ago from Mauritania and had been sent to Granada from the Canaries by the government. He had it all worked out that he would be working on a building site and would have his papers in two years. Needless to say, there is very little chance for this person to get papers in two years. Most probably, he will be exploited and got rid of when he no longer serves his purpose.

In Granada, there is a noticeable increase in the numbers of mostly Senegalese men on the streets compared to a year ago. I mentioned this to my Senegalese hair braider who has resided in Granada for the past five years. She replied, “There are too many coming today. Before we were not many. Now there are too many and there is nothing for them to do, the only source of income open to them is to sell CDs. That is not a life.”

In terms of legal rights and status, migrants can be divided into three groups: the educated elite and experts, who are subject to very few restrictions and social disadvantages; the mass of migrants who usually seek seasonal work, whose rights are severely restricted and whose situation is characterised by poor working conditions, high unemployment, and poor living conditions; and “illegal aliens” who are needed on the labour market, but are politically excluded and have no rights whatsoever.

The irony is that only 30 years ago thousands of seasonal Spanish migrants, especially from Andalusia, spent their summers working in northern Europe, Germany and France mainly picking fruit, but also working on building sites and as casual labourers, just like the Moroccans and West Africans are doing in Spain today. In those days the borders were open and skin colour was not an issue. It is interesting how far international relations have deteriorated, but most importantly, it is remarkable how the state of affairs seems to be influenced by cultural prejudice against those from the so-called “Third World”.

*Sokari Ekine produces the blog Black Looks,

*Please send comments to [email protected] or comment online at www.pambazuka.org