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Momodou
Denmark
11835 Posts |
 Posted - 26 Apr 2007 : 16:27:00
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KOINA WARD SURRENDER ARMS FOR DEVELOPMENT
By Bubacarr K. Sowe
A number of 28 guns and some ammunitions voluntarily surrendered by communities of Koina Ward in the Upper River Region (URR) were on Saturday, April 21, destroyed in exchange for development projects provided by the West African Network for Peace building (WANEP) The Gambia.
The Sub-Regional Programme on Small Arms and Light Weapons Project (SRP-SALW) is being funded by the Canadian Fund for Africa, through a consortium of Oxfarm-Great Britain and the Canadian Centre for International Studies and Cooperation (CECI). It is also being implemented in Guinea, Guinea Bissau and Senegal.
The two year pilot programme which is in its last month is aimed at improving and promoting peace and security of people in the sub-region with the vision of creating an enabling environment for sustainable development.
WANEP which is the focal point of the programme in The Gambia undertook a sensitization programme in the area recently resulting to the collection of different types of guns and ammunition and in turn providing them with a multi-purpose skills centre, a hand pump well and two grinding machines for coos, millet and groundnuts, which were unveiled at the ceremony.
The Secretary of State for Interior, Ousman Sonko, told the gathering at the destruction of guns ceremony that the government needs the cooperation and assistance of its citizens to fight crime at all times.
Mr. Sonko re-called the recent up surge in armed robberies in the country, saying that his government has given priority to security and safety for its citizenry.
"Government was a signatory to the adoption of the draft ECOWAS convention on Small Arms and Light Weapons during the ECOWAS Head of State Summit in Abuja in June 2006." I am pleased to assure you all, that Government will not only adopt but would also ratify this very important convention in the sub-region," SoS Sonko promised.
He added that Koina Ward being, a guns-free society is a positive message and is enough justification to extend the project to other communities cross The Gambia.
Dr. Pamela Cole, National Coordinator of WANEP-The Gambia, said that The Gambia is in a strategic location of a region which has witnessed armed conflicts in the recent past.
She said that The Gambia needs to be wise and learn from the mistakes Guinea Bissau, Casamance and other war ravaged countries have encountered.
Despite being a poor country, she said, The Gambia has peace as it's most precious commodity, which if preserved can serve as an engine to end poverty in all communities.
Mr. Job said that development cannot be enjoyed in the absence of peace. "No meaningful development can be sustained without peace and security," he stressed. He noted that gone are those days when people should be engaged in endless conflict like the Medieval periods in Europe and the Dark Ages in Africa.
The programme's Technical Adviser in Dakar, Ndiankou Gueye, said that the communities of Koina Ward and the Gambia's Security forces have been helpful to the project.
Mr. Gueye added that their objective is to see the sub-region free from conflict and achieve development. Julie Lambal of Movement Contre Les Armes Ligeres en Afrique de l'Ouest (MALAO), WANEP's sister organisation in Senegal, also recognised the need to consolidate peace for sustainable development.
The ceremony was coloured by traditional musical performance by the Sarahule, Fula and Mandinka singers, drummers and dancers.
A multilingual play was staged by the Nova-Scotia Gambia Association Peer Health Educators featuring a young man maimed by a gun which his father refused to dispose of.
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