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Sudan + 1 more

Preventing diversion of arms and ammunition in Sudan and South Sudan

On 28 August 2012, BICC and the Verification Center of the German Armed Forces organized an experts’ meeting at the German Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York City. With an estimated three million small arms and light weapons in circulation among the civilian population, both Sudan and South Sudan are struggling to control the proliferation of weapons.

Both Dr. Mahmoud Zainelabdeen from the Sudan DDR Commission in Khartoum and his counterpart Gen. Christo Fataki from the South Sudanese Bureau for Community Security and Arms Control stressed the dangers of uncontrolled civilian ownership as a legacy of the decades-old civil war. Both called for more assistance from the international community in their attempts to secure arms stockpiles and improve cross-border cooperation.

Marius Kahl, BICC Technical Advisor at the Bureau for Community Security and Arms Control in Juba, presented lessons from the German Foreign Office-funded project on arms and ammunition management in South Sudan. Wolf-Christian Paes, Head of Section Advisory Services at BICC, discussed the perspectives of regional SALW control cooperation in the framework of the “Khartoum Declaration” and presented an outlook on the planned BICC project activities in Sudan.

Lars Wirkus, Head of Data and GIS at BICC, presented the “Interactive Guide on Small Arms: a tool for PoA implementation”, which the Center is developing in close cooperation with the Verification Center of the Armed Forces with support from the German Foreign Office.

The event was attended by more than 100 representatives from government delegations, think tanks and non-governmental organizations. It took place in the context of the Second Review Conference of the UN Programme of Action on SALW (26 August – 07 September 2012).