Ivory Coast prime minister visits HALO Trust weapons cutting

The HALO Trust’s Director, Guy Willoughby, met with the Ivory Coast’s Prime Minister, Mr. Daniel Duncan, as part of the country’s Disarmament Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) programme on Monday 25th February 2013. The Prime Minister started the destruction process of weapons collected from former combatants who have been demobilised and trained as civilian Prison Service Personnel. 2,000 former combatants were demobilised in a two month operation in October and November 2012. 1,320 weapons were collected during the process, of which 600 will be destroyed by The HALO Trust, with the remaining weapons being re-issued to the Ivorian Military Forces (FRCI). The HALO Trust is contracted by UNMAS to provide technical assistance and equipment support to the DDR programme and has already destroyed 5,240 weapons in the Ivory Coast.

HALO has been operating in Ivory Coast since May 2011. As well as assisting in the disarmament and weapons destruction process its teams have also destroyed 47 tonnes of ammunition and have rehabilitated 90 police, gendarmerie and FRCI weapons storage facilities across the country to bring them into line with international standards.