By DOH JAMES SONKEY
The government has decided to stiffen control on the sale of firearms in Cameroon. The decision was taken last April 27, 2018 by the Minister of Territorial Administration, Atanga Nji Paul after chairing a meeting in Yaounde with dealers of firearms.
The new measure requires that henceforth, before selling any firearm, dealers will take an individual commitment which will hold him criminally responsible before the law and also systematically send a digital file of each firearm containing essential information on customers, the number of weapons and ammunition sold to the Ministry of Territorial Administration.
Speaking at the occasion, Minister Atanga Nji said the move is intended to check the illegal circulation of arms and ammunition in Cameroon in order to cub increasing security threats posed by assailants in the South West and North West regions as well as Boko Haram terrorists in the Far North region and other criminal gangs in the country.
The Minister and the dealers in weapons agreed on the urgent need to mitigate the proliferation of weapons and ammunition which are increasingly used for crime related activities.
Explaining that the President of the Republic Paul Biya has ordered each stakeholder to take their responsibilities to fully check the proliferation of firearms that poses a serious threat to the stability of the country, Minister Atanga Nji said the meeting is a follow up to a 4th April order suspending the sale of weapons in six regions of Cameroon; North West and South West, West, Littoral, Centre and Adamawa.
Statistics from the Ministry of Territorial Administration show that more than 27,000 weapons are in circulation in the country despite the fact that less than 3800 weapons licenses have been issued.
The Minister therefore indicted the vendors for “ignoring clearly laid down rules and consequently facilitating the circulation of unregistered guns in the hands of people who do not have licences.”