'A series of massive blasts recently rocked Equatorial Guinea’s city of Bata. The explosions, at an army barracks, killed over 100 people and destroyed military buildings as well as people’s homes around the site. President Teodoro Obiang Nguema stated that the explosions were “caused by negligence of the unit in charge of storing explosives, dynamite and ammunition at the Nkoa Ntoma military camp”.

National Action Plans (NAPs) are critical for systematically and effectively implementing, coordinating, monitoring, and evaluating small arms control measures within states. NAPs clearly elaborate national priorities and facilitate coordination between national government agencies and key stakeholders, as well as with external partners and donors. The fifth panel of the Small Arms Survey 2020 online forum ‘Taking stock of action on the illicit small arms trade’ brought together actors from the national, regional, and international levels to share experiences from their work on NAPs.

'The world is currently facing an unprecedented challenge in the form of COVID-19. The pandemic is affecting people’s lives across the globe, and predictions speak to the crisis continuing for a while yet.

Ammunition is an expensive commodity and an essential resource for the implementation of a national defence and security policy. However, national ammunition stockpiles can also pose risks to national security and public safety. Poor accounting and inadequate physical security of storage facilities can facilitate the diversion of ammunition from the national stockpile to terrorists, criminals, and other armed groups, increasing insecurity and instability.

Surplus ammunition poses significant safety and security risks in post-conflict settings, which is why effectively managing such ammunition is vital to mitigating those risks. This Small Arms Survey Briefing Paper provides ten lessons learned on the establishment of a life-cycle management of ammunition (LCMA) system in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The lessons relate to national ownership, planning, stockpile management, and disposal.

Translated into Arabic by the EU-LAS project.