Khartoum — The Commissioner of the Disarmament, Demobilization and Reintegration Commission, Major General Abdul Rahman Abdul Hamid Ibrahim, affirmed that Sudan's entry into the Arms Trade Regulatory Treaty provides security and stability in the region and the country.
He noted during his address to the opening session of the workshop on the Arms Trade Treaty in partnership with the Regional Center for Arms Control today at Nimeiri Military Academy in Omdurman, targeting the leaders of the various security services units and representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Justice and Defense.
He indicated that illegal tradeof weapons include all types of weapons, heavy, light and small, noting that the workshop aims to acquint leaders about the international Arms Trade Treaty, indicating that Sudan is not a member of it, pointing out that an agreement was made with the Secretariat of the Arms Trade Treaty in Geneva and The Regional Center for Arms in the Lakes Region and Sudan to hold four workshops for the leaders of Sudan in preparation for Sudan's accession to the ATT, revealing that these workshops are funded by the Secretariat of the ATT in Geneva
Major General Abdul Rahman stressed that the agreement aims to regulate the arms trade, which in turn leads to stability in the region, works to reduce tensions and conflicts between societies and to control weapons.
He noted that accession to the ATT can only take place with Parliament's ratification, noting that Sudan has now begun working in preparation for reaching that stage, asserting that Sudan joining of the treaty will benefit greatly in protecting the country and the cooperation of the international community in controlling internal and cross-border weapons, and Sudan will enter into the arms trade legally.
For his part, Rick Kind, the representative of the Executive Secretary of the Regional Center for Light Arms Control, affirmed the illegal arms trade threat to the region, and that small and light weapons pose a threat in their use in terrorism and violence and some armed threats in society, indicating that these weapons are manufactured outside the continent and traded illegally in the African continent, indicating that the ATT designed to control weapons, which is the United Nations program that includes the firearms protocol and contracting, and it reinforces the Khartoum Declaration 2012 in the control of small and light weapons, especially the neighboring countries of western Sudan.
