South Sudan: Authorities begins mass disarmament campaign

(SomaliNet) As part of an effort to try to end tribal conflicts which claim dozens of lives each year, South Sudanese authorities have begun to collect thousands of guns amassed by civilians during decades of war, officials said.

Since a 2005 north-south peace deal ended Africa\'s longest civil war, efforts by the semi-autonomous southern government to disarm civilians have claimed an estimated 1,500 lives because they took weapons from some tribes leaving them vulnerable to neighboring communities who were still armed.

Paul Mayom, Southern Internal Affairs Minister said on Thursday few had given up their guns voluntarily and a new army- backed campaign was needed.

He said they would simultaneously disarm communities nearby to avoid bloodshed.

\"(This) new approach is comprehensive disarmament, by removing all the illegal guns,\" Mayom said. \"If you don\'t do it we\'ll take it by force.\"

During Sudan\'s north-south civil war which has raged on and off since 1955, tribal communities were given or bought weapons to protect their lands and cattle. But with peace, gun law has remained paramount in many parts of the south.

The new campaign will differ from earlier attempts that targeted specific communities.

In 2006 the Swiss-based independent research group Small Arms Survey estimated some 1,200 civilians and 400 soldiers were killed in a campaign to disarm the Lou Nuer tribe as their neighbors retained weapons.

But this year the civil authorities will give communities warning and then record, collect and store the guns in a more organized fashion to avoid similar bloodshed.-Reuters