Ethiopian Parliament Passes New Gun Laws

A recent surge in gun violence in Ethiopia has led to new restrictive legislation. (Wikimedia Commons)

Ethiopia’s parliament passed transformative gun control legislation on January 16 following a surge in ethnic violence proliferated by private gun ownership, reports Reuters.

According to Africanews, the new Firearm Administration and Control proclamation bans private weapons trade and harshens the prison sentence for illegal arms possession. It establishes that each region may set its own legal age for gun ownership and limits the number of firearms an individual can own to only one, according to defenceWeb. Additionally, only specified government organizations can legally import guns, reports Ventures Africa.

The punishment for violating the gun limit is up to three years in prison, and those found to be involved in arms trafficking can receive a penalty of eight to 20 years in prison, according to Ventures Africa.

“There is [sic] a significant number of guns in our society since the previous government and the law will help formalise ownership,” lawmaker Tesfaye Daba told parliament during the passage of the bill, according to defenceWeb.

As of April 2019, Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s government claimed to have seized 21 machine guns, over 33,000 handguns, 275 rifles, and 300,000 bullets throughout the country, with hopes to seize more firearms. In October, security forces confiscated firearms in the Amhara region smuggled in by oil trucks from Sudan, the government told Reuters. 

In 2004, a referendum was held to decide the placement of more than 420 kebeles, Ethiopia’s smallest administrative units, around its borders, according to Ventures Africa. The result was that 80 percent were given to the Oromia region, a highly unequal distribution which has contributed to the recent surge in ethnic violence. 

The Amhara region specifically experienced escalating ethnic violence over the past two years, resulting in the deaths of hundreds and the displacement of over 2.7 million people, according to Reuters. These include thousands of Somalis who fled the country for fear of being targeted in response to the destruction caused by the Oromo-Somali clashes, according to the Los Angeles Times.

Reuters reports that Ahmed came to power in 2018 and put in place dozens of sweeping liberal reforms that earned him international praise but worsened regional tensions. Despite loosening the previous administration’s iron grip, the federal government struggles to enforce laws, and there is a “perception of weakening law enforcement,” according to William Davidson, an analyst at the International Crisis Group. “The proliferation of illegal arms risks fuelling further turmoil,” he said.

According to the UN, reducing the availability and use of small firearms in places where fighting has ended has become increasingly important to Africa’s development prospects as a whole.