Summary of the Activities of Weapons Registration and Branding in West Darfur State
EL FASHER (DARFUR), Sudan, January 23, 2013/African Press Organization (APO)/ -- El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur Sate, will witness on 29 and 30 January 2013 the activities of registration and branding of weapons carried by citizens.
This project is one of the fruits of cooperation between the Disarmament Demobilization and Reintegration (DDR) Commission and the Ministry of the Interior in collaboration with UNAMID and UNDP. The ceremony, which will be organized under the auspices of the Wali (Governor) of West Darfur HE Haidar Jalicoma, will be honored by the presence of the Minister of the Interior HE Engineer Ibrahim Mahmoud Hamid.
The weapons registration and branding project is funded by the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs through the BICC within a framework of partnership between the BICC and the Commission.
The workshop aims to create cooperation between the community, the official agencies, the native administration, women, youth and students to respond to the policies of the state mechanism entrusted with the mission of weapons registration and branding.
This activity comes within the framework of the efforts exerted by the Government of Sudan and its partners to curb proliferation and unlawful use of small and light weapons in pursuit of and complementary to previous efforts in this regard such as the regional conference on curbing proliferation of small and light arms in May 2012 in which Chad, Central African Republic, Congo and Libya in addition to the Sudan deliberated on the subject. Such efforts also included implementation of community security programs, arms control and consultation meetings organized in collaboration with UNAMID and UNDP.
The activities shall commence with a workshop to be held in the premises of the Legislative Council on 29 January which will be attended by high ranking officials from the central and regional governments and representatives from other Darfur States in addition to a number of ambassadors, members of diplomatic corps and development agencies, representatives of regular forces, leaderships of IDPs and refugees, representatives of professional associations (farmers, grazers, businessmen …etc.), women associations, high ranking leaders from the State residing in Khartoum in addition to representatives of international and local media.
The workshop aims to reinforce and project the political will to all stakeholders and international partners and present the will and cooperation of the local community to control weapons and minimize armed violence for the sake of reinforcing socio-economic development.
A high committee, headed by the Wali (Governor) of the state of West Darfur, has been formed for this purpose. This committee will be supported by a technical and executive committee headed by the Commissioner of the State Government and other sub-committees at the locality level. A period of 6 months, renewable, has been stipulated for the exercise of weapons registration and branding.
A big festival will be organized on the second day of the workshop where hakamt, popular arts groups, artists and theatrical groups will take part.