ECOWAS to Implement Convention on Arms

Onyebuchi Ezigbo (ThisDay)--Economic Community of West African States(ECOWAS) yesterdaysaid it is on the threshold of implementing the legally binding instrument aimed at checking the continued proliferation of small arms within the sub-region.

Executive Secretary of ECOWAS, Dr Mohammed Ibn Chambas, who spoke at the opening of the third session of the Advisory board meeting of the ECOWAS Small Arms Programme in Abuja, said all but one country has so far ratified the convention.

He said the expectation is that the convention, which seeks to enforce a moratorium on wide spread use of small arms within the sub-region, will come into effect before the end of the year. ‘The ECOWAS convention on Small Arms is at the threshold of history, with only one country remaining to allow for the eventual entry into force of the legally binding instrument. It is our expectation that before the end of the year, the convention will come into force,’ he said.

In a bid to arrest the rising conflicts and violence resulting from unrestricted use of small arms, member states of the sub-regional body came together on October 31, 1998, to adopt a moratorium on importation, exportation and manufacture of light weapons, which later transformed into the ECOWAS convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons.

Chambas said endorsement and declarations of these instruments was followed by implementation of national frameworks and that the Commissionprovided considerable support to member countries through the ECOWAS Multi-Donor Trust Funds, in their effort to curb the spread of small arms. According to him, the Commission is working hard and is determined to ensure that all member states ratifies the convention as soon as possible, so that its implementation can take -off in earnest.

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