Experts have warned that Cameroon will remain a potentially fertile area for armed conflicts if no measures are taken to check the illicit circulation of arms.

They sounded the warning in Yaounde on June 3 at a round table conference to mark the Global Week for Action Against Gun Violence.An NGO, Women in Alternative Action, WAA-Cameroon, organised the occasion at the Nsimeyong neighbourhood.

Speakers at the occasion were unanimous that Cameroon remains in danger because it shares porous borders with conflict-stricken countries. These countries are Chad, Central African Republic and Congo.

According to them, there are many lurking conflicts that could one day degenerate into armed conflicts if the illicit circulation of arms is not fully checked.WAA-Cameroon Coordinator, Justine Kwachu, said it was incumbent on stakeholders to raise awareness and seek different ways of stopping gun violence.

"We must arrest the problem of illegal circulation of small arms and light weapons;" she admonished.She said gun violence kills more than 500,000 people a year and injures more than a million the world over. To her, gun violence is a public health crisis of global proportions with negative socio-economic consequences.

"Gun violence is the illegal use of guns on citizens,' one of the panellists stated.Michael Kamgha, a lecturer at the Yaounde Higher Police College, said there are 1134 gun-manufacturing companies in 94 countries. In the same vein, he said 55 percent of arms in the world are legally or illegally owned by civilians. Uniform officers, he disclosed, have only 45 percent. He said gun violence is even more ramified by the fact that there are over 300,000 child soldiers in the world who use guns anyhow.

One official from the Presidency said the case of Cameroon is not healthy because the law governing the control of guns has loopholes. He said many individuals in the nation possess arms because the law empowers the Minister of Territorial Administration and Decentralisation to let them acquire them.

Buttressing this point, Police Superintendent, Rita Nji, also a lecturer at the Police College said the law permits every citizen of good morals to possess a gun.In such a situation, she said, the guns can only be used for individual protection and nothing else. She said the law does not permit every police officer to have a gun.

Going by her, police who have guns are not authorised to use live bullets to quell down a strike."While maintaining law and order, the police have no right to shot until, they are authorised by the Head of State," she explained.

The Police Superintendent qualified arms as a necessary evil given that they are used to maintain the security of countries and are also the source agony if misused.Because of her strategic geographic situation in the Central African sub-region, she recommended that Cameroon should play a leading role in stopping the illicit movement of arms.

For his part, Felix Ebonge Eboa, an official at the Ministry of External Relations, regretted that there is a black market for arms.He said Cameroon should take strong measures to check the illegal circulation of guns.