The Sierra Leone National Commission on Small Arms (SLeNCSA) has completed a two-day Inter- Agency Synergy Retreat in Makeni, northern Sierra Leone.

The retreat held on the 11th and 12th March 2010 has as it theme: "Building Effective Partnership and Co-ordination for the Establishment of the Sierra Leone Small Arms and Light Weapons Commission".

It attracted various stakeholders including government officials, security forces, the media and other distinguished personalities.

The high table at the Makeni Retreat

The retreat focused on the need to identify and control the dissemination of small arms and light weapons in the sub-region in particular and the world as a whole.

In his statement, the Minister of Internal Affairs, Local Government and Rural Development, Dauda S. Kamara, expressed concerns about the impact of the proliferation of small arms and light weapons in the country.

He said the government has prioritized the said issue in its agenda, adding that government is presently designing mechanisms to ensure that there are control measures that will strengthen the fight against proliferation of small arms and light weapons.

The Minister of Defense, Retired Major Paolo A. Conteh, described the retreat as very crucial to the sustainable development of not just Sierra Leone but the entire West African Sub-region.

The Defence Minister went on that during the conflict in Sierra Leone, the uncontrollable nature of small arms caused unnecessary suffering to the people of this country. He further appealed to the Mano River Union States to work in collaboration with the rest of other West African States to initiate a policy for controlling small arms and light weapons.

Deputy Country Programmes Director of United Nation Development Programme (UNDP), Sam Habor, said the availability and use of illegal fire-arms remains a threat to national security and stability for many years after the cessation of the conflict in Sierra Leone.

Mr. Habor furthered that ninety-two chiefdoms in Sierra Leone voluntarily surrendered arms in exchange for development and over six thousand weapons were being collected.

The UNDP Deputy Director also informed the gathering that two integrated border-posts, police post, customs, and immigration department have been constructed at Gendema and Koindukura to strengthen border security.

In his keynote address, the Minister of Presidential and Public Affairs, Honourable Joseph Koroma, said small arms and light weapons are in the heart of struggle for sustainable peace and security not only in Sierra Leone but the world as a whole. In the area of the fighting against proliferation of small arms and light weapons, the Minister said government has successfully collected various arms during the Disarmament, Decentralization and Rehabilitation (DDR), the Sierra Leone Police led Community Arms Collection and Destruction, and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) led Arms for Development Programmes.