Nairobi — Twelve African countries Sunday reaffirmed their commitment to the marking of all state-owned small arms and light weapons by end of this year.

The Regional Centre on Small Arms (Recsa) deputy executive secretary ambassador Tharcisse Midonzi said the 12 countries from the Great Lakes region, East Africa and Horn of Africa had also agreed to maintain data bases to ease the tracing of small arms and light weapons.

Mr Midonzi made the remarks at Leopard Beach Hotel during the closure of a Recsa workshop focusing on the marking of small arms and creation of weapon data bases.

Participants were drawn from Kenya Uganda, Tanzania, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Sudan, Somalia, Seychelles, Rwanda, Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo.

Member states recommended that Recsa provide electronic arm-marking machines since they have the capacity to brand arms as well as preserve data.

They also argued that an electronic marking machine can brand arms three times faster than a manual one.

Participants were in agreement that if the states are provided with the electronic machines, they will be able to beat the December deadline.

Recsa, through funding from the US government, has already bought 12 manual arms marking machines, which were to be given to member states.

However, Recsa research and gender officer Francis Wairagu said the organisation would buy the recommended electronic machines by June this year.

Mr Wairagu said the organisation had bought the manual machines because they can be used without electricity in case users are in remote areas.

Combine efforts

Member states also reaffirmed commitment to producing their weapons progress reports at a small arms conference to be held in New York in July.

Recsa will table a regional report on the member states at the conference, which is under the UN Programme of Action on the Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons.

Participants resolved to combine efforts in the war against proliferation of small arms and light weapons, which they said had affected members' internal security and economic development.