Ethiopia Destruction
The destruction of 1,600 firearms occurred on Monday 20 November 2006 in Addis Ababa at a steel melting facility in a public destruction ceremony. During 15-18 November 2006, SaferAfrica managed the preparation of these 1,600 firearms for destruction. The Regional Centre on Small Arms and Light Weapons (RECSA) funded this destruction ceremony, while SaferAfrica provided the technical expertise.
The firearms were made available for destruction by the decision of the National Focal Point on Small Arms and Light Weapons of the Government of Ethiopia (NFP), who declared approximately 11,000 firearms obsolete. These firearms included not only obsolete firearms, but those stocks seized and captured by the law enforcement agencies in Ethiopia. In this November destruction, 1,600 firearms were destroyed, while the remaining 9,400 firearms are to be destroyed by smelting during January 2007.
The first step in the destruction was the declaration by the NFP that these firearm stocks were obsolete. The second step was the establishment of what exactly was available for destruction and whether the intended destruction method was appropriate to these types of stocks. The following task was to divide or group these firearm stocks for identification purposes. Under this step, firearms were grouped in piles according to their type, make and calibre. This made it easier for the next undertaking which entailed the physical recording of the information of each firearm. The types of information recorded included the firearm type, make, calibre, serial number and country of origin. The next step entailed the preparation of the firearm for destruction. This safety precaution should be undertaken before the firearms are moved to the public destruction site. Each weapon was checked for safety with special attention given to the removal and separation of all ammunition and magazines.
The physical destruction site needs to be prepared, which entailed the removal of obstacles in close proximity to the destruction terrain. In addition to this, a wooden framework for the attachment of the firearms needed to be built. Thereafter the firearms were moved to the physical destruction site and attached to the wooden frame.
The actual destruction took place on Monday 20 November 2006 in Addis Ababa at a steel melting facility. The guest of honour was the Speaker of the National Assembly, who also set the stack of firearms alight. After the firearm tower burnt out, the weapons were left to cool after which they were moved directly to the smelter for the final destruction.
The firearms destroyed in this operation included the following:
| Type of firearm | Quantity of firearms destroyed |
| Assault Rifles | 90 |
Rifles: Self-loading |
328 |
Rifles: Semi-Automatic |
1 |
Rifles: Lever Action |
2 |
Shotguns |
16 |
SMG |
71 |
Rifles: Bolt Action |
995 |
Machine Guns |
65 |
to top
home
search