Irish-Qhobosheane, Jenni. 2021 ‘Counting the Cost of Firearm Violence.’ How to Silence the Guns? Southern Africa's Illegal Firearms Markets, pp. 5-7. Geneva: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, Geneva. 19 October

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In Zimbabwe, in contrast to its two neighbours, the number of illicit guns available is relatively low. However, 2017 estimates indicated that of the estimated 455 000 firearms in the hands of civilians, the majority (264,315) were unregistered. And although Zimbabwe has always had one of the lowest homicide rates in the world, data prepared
by the Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency shows that, since 2011, there has been a steady increase in the number of murder cases. They increased by a significant 19 per cent between 2017 and first 11 months of 2018.

As with Mozambique, current data on the number of firearm-related homicides is not available but data collected by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime in 2010 shows that firearms accounted for 65.6 per cent of all homicides that occurred in the country.

As with Mozambique, illegal firearms have been linked to longrunning political conflicts in Zimbabwe. In 2019, during a meeting of the National Peace and Reconciliation Commission, concerns were expressed about the arming of political militia within the country.

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