NAIROBI, Kenya — Private security firms are storing their guns aboard floating armories in international waters so ships that want armed anti-piracy guards for East Africa's pirate-infested waters can cut costs and circumvent laws limiting the import and export of weapons, industry officials say. Companies and legal experts say the operation of the armories is a "legal gray area" because few, if any, governments have laws governing the practice. Some security... (GunPolicy.org)

The Executive Secretary of the Regional Centre on Small Arms (RECSA), Dr. Francis K. Sang, has called upon all countries within the region to come up with more mechanisms and strategies to fight against the proliferation of illicit small arms and light weapons. RECSA is an intergovernmental body based in Nairobi, Kenya, bringing together 13 countries from the Great Lakes and Horn of Africa region. All member states that subscribe to the centre, including Rwanda, are... (GunPolicy.org)

Serbia has blocked a large weapons sale to Libya because of fears it involves a company that is blacklisted by the United Nations for breaking an arms embargo, Serbia's economy minister said Wednesday. Mladjan Dinkic said the Balkan country's secret service has stopped the sale of small arms and ammunition produced by two state-owned Serbian weapons factories that was worth about $50 million. He said this was done because of suspicions that the deal was made through... (GunPolicy.org)

NAIROBI — All firearms in the Great Lakes Region, East Africa and the Horn of Africa will soon be marked with country codes, force code and serial numbers in the fight against the proliferation of small arms and light weapons. A workshop organised by the Regional Centre on Small Arms and held recently on Kenya's South Coast was told that 12 manual arms-marking machines have already been purchased through funding from the US government and will be distributed to each... (GunPolicy.org)