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HomeNewsEthiopia : Firearms control draft legislation got approval in parliament

Ethiopia : Firearms control draft legislation got approval in parliament

The Federal Police Commission will organize a National Firearms Control Division to enforce new legislation across Ethiopia. Only the Federal government has the power to import firearms

Ethiopia _ Firearms control _ legislation
Photo : from file. Credit : EBC

borkena
January 9, 2020

The ninth regular session of the Ethiopian parliament approved on Thursday legislation on firearms control.  It was presented to the parliament by Foreign Affairs and Peace Standing Committee as well as the Law and Justice standing committee in the parliament

Ten members of the People’s House of Representatives raised questions on the draft and offered remarks before it passed.

Four parliamentarians abstained during the voting process while two voted against the bill, according to a report by Ethiopian News Agency ENA, state media.

According to government-affiliated news sources, the legislation is informed by an effort to create a belief among the people that carrying a firearm is useless, and that the government could maintain peace in the country. 

Ethiopia is a signatory to international conventions relating to firearms control and the new legislation is also intended to close any legal loopholes for the control of arms capable of implementing those international conventions as well.

And it restricts the sale or brokerage of firearms. Non-firearms weapons like a machete, mencha, assault knife, and arrows, among others, are included in the legislation.

With regard to the use of non-firearm weapons, possessing them in a way that endangers the public is prohibited.

The new legislation makes it illegal to purchase, sell, stockpile or circulate firearms, military binoculars, sniper binoculars, and firearms, and the production of them without government authorization. 

Those citizens who are already armed before this legislation will have up to one year, so long as they are not armed with a banned weapon, to appear before the regulatory body nearest to them and make it legal. And those who fail to do so will be confiscated by the regulatory agency.

Firearms that will be issued with government authorization will have an identification code. And if it does not have one, the entity that regulates firearms will prepare one.  Individuals with Firearm permission will have to renew it every two years while institutions need to do so every five years.

Based on Fana Broadcasting Corporate report, the Federal Police will institute a National FireArms Control Division and will carry out technologically assisted gun registry. 

Individuals applying for firearm permission need to have Ethiopian citizenship and free from alcohol or drug addiction, and free from mental health.

Entities with a legal authorization to possess a firearm are restricted from carrying it in public places, recreational places, sporting places and events, educational institutions and places of worship, and similar public places.

Certain institutions are not allowed to have permission to own or possess firearms, as reported by Fana Broadcasting Corporate (FBC). These include political parties, religious institutions and charitable organization among others.

The Federal government of Ethiopia has the only mandate to import-export firearms as per the new legislation which means that regional states do not have the legal authority to engage in the practice of acquiring firearms from abroad or export to overseas. 

The legislation is also said to be useful in terms of ensuring the rule of law in the country.

Illegal circulation of smuggled firearms have been one of the major challenges of Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s administration which contributed to security crisis in different parts of Ethiopia.

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3 COMMENTS

  1. Legal gun shops donot exist in Ethiopia.
    Legal gunnranges donot exist in Ethiopia.
    Gejera Machete is as deadly as guns when it comes to public safety concerns.
    Systemic Encouraging of violence by not bringing those genocidal jiadists to justice is more deadlier than Bazuka launchers .

  2. We are lions , but not chickens(i.e coward) like amhara , kizenamoch., leboch , nefsegedayoch etc;

    During Derge regime, the cannibal , my flesh and blood , tegarus were condemned as “የወያኔ ስንቅ አቀባዮች”. and some were shot dead, some sent to the warfront while children of deep-pocketed amharas were sent to USA, and richest schools, in Bole(ቦሌ). Some were tortured and rammed,hit, with military vehicules(tanks:ታንክ). So, it is to say that we paid our blood and revered lives thus far . We gonna turn our enemies into the ground , dust if you approach us ! It will be “gehanem Isat” for you if you dare to get in control of any of Tigray villages let alone a town or other !!imagine you are in the midst of Lions….being torn into pieces…..so scary for a donkey to bear this pain

    • Amleset Gemechu

      The coming war Tigray to fight the end goal should be to regain our looted land that is the price Tigrayans worth to fight and die. Tigray should not go to war to restore federal for other traitors, we got a lesson we will not forget them unless we are crazy ethnic. We know Abiy will try everything to stay in power with the help of Amhara but Tigray must send fedayne to Addis Ababa as civilians gradually and live there and do all the preparations and they should go one night and take over all the government communication and surround where the mercenary lives and take over. Tigray should spy where the anti-Tigray lives in Addis like Berhanu, Demeke and others and during the operation fedayne should be assigned where they live to take them out as soon as they face them. The reason Tigray should do this is to take out the center of anti-Tigray mercenary Abiy and Tigray can avoid a bigger war from the north and south of us, actually once we take the mercenary take out the evil sane man shouting us everyday like crazy dog. Even If we want to use ART39, it would be very difficult to use it so long this mercenary is alive in Addis but if we accomplish the above one day then Tigray can be rewards many things, one we can go head and take our looted lands with very cheap cost, we can distribute all federal properties and EPRDF properties and we can secure Afar for sure and others if we want. One thing all Tigrayans to come to terms is not to wait until the central government Amhara led by Abiy armed by foreign entities. Waiting is costing us life and more treasury like interest expense you pay for the large loan you hold. The war is a holding loan with high interest rate to pay them in the future. The interest rate or expenses we pay will be the foreign entities arming and training countries like France, US, Arabs against Tigray. Tigray does not need a leader who pushes the pending war for the future in order to buy time to hold power, we need a leader can solve problems in time as they come (FIFO method), that is first in first out base. Tigray must learn from Jawar and the federalist chair who defected two days ago, they are not trust worthy Tigray to live with them as one citizen but Tigray can use them to achieve its goal and let the country go to hell. When Tigray leaves Somali and Oromo will not live with Amhara and the disintegration of the country is good for us, we do not have to worry in the future from any stronger ethnic to attack us if the country disintegrates now. The next six months is the most important decision Tigrayans to make for the fate of Tigray years to come. Today Tigray is exactly in a square one in 1889 after the death of our king and we should not do what our forefathers did then.

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