Luanda — More than 100,000 firearms have been destroyed throughout the national territory so far, as part of the process of disarmament of the civilian population, which began in 2008, the Minister of Interior Eugénio Laborinho said.

In a recent interview to ANGOP, Eugénio Laborinho said that the process continues with awareness campaigns and voluntary delivery and coercive collection of weapons across the country.

Regarding the withdrawal of weapons of war from private security companies, the government official stated that it has been done gradually since 2022, highlighting that more than 100 licenses to import defense weapons have been issued.

The official considered that the appropriate equipment for employees of security companies should not be weapons of war, as happens now.

"For this reason and based on the Law, the aforementioned weapons will be replaced by less lethal equipment suitable for carrying out their activities", he highlighted.

He added that due to the requirement of "compliance", some companies are experiencing difficulties in transacting currency through banks, which has been limiting the volume of acquisition of the respective weapons.

"We can state that the strategy of replacing weapons of war held by private security companies (EPS) and Self Protection Systems (SAP) is a process that has seen some success, as, since its entry into force, in 2021, more than 800 weapons of war were exchanged for defense weapons", he emphasized.