A large number of people in the Horn of Africa have grown up in the midst of armed conflict. They are never far from violence and danger. The abundance of weapons in the region and the constant influx of new arms play a large role in these conflicts. In the report ‘Armed and insecure’, PAX provides a unique overview of the manner in which armed conflict and the arms trade reinforce each other.
The ready availability of weapons and the failure to limit their trade can result in a rapid escalation of violence in which civilians are the main victims. In the Horn of Africa, thousands have been killed and hundreds of thousands have fled from violence in the last few years. PAX arms trade programme leader, and one of the authors of the report, Frank Slijper, says “In order to create peaceful societies, governments in the region need to invest more in security for their citizens. At the same time, exporting countries need to maintain strict norms when it comes to transferring weapons to the region.”
‘Armed and insecure’ deals with the security situation and the arms trade between 2010 and 2015 in Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan and Uganda.
Download the report Armed and insecure.
A summary of the report is also available.