The South Sudan Police Service says all guns in possession of the organized forces have been marked to stop them from being used in carrying out crimes.

The Assistant Inspector-General of South Sudan Police Service, Major-General Abraham Manyuat Peter said that there are many illegal guns for sale in markets and that’s why the weapons all need to be marked.

“All the guns that belong to the police in Central Equatoria State are marked: “SSP CE”, and that guns that belong to the Wild Life Forces are marked “Wild Life CE” ,” he said. “So we will know exactly that this gun belongs to this state and belongs to that state, and if we happen to find a gun in the place of cattle raiding, we would know to whom was the gun given and accountability will be there,” he said.

Major-General Manyuat said that  the army and organized forces in all the ten states of South Sudan were given marks for their guns.

He also said the organized forces must be accountable for their ammunition and that any officer who loses a single bullet will be punished:

“When a soldier is given a gun, his or her gun is numbered, and the number of bullets given to him or her is also counted and the purpose of that ,whether he is going for patrol or for a trip, and when he returns from the trip, he is expected to return the gun to the store, bearing his mark and the number of bullets he received.” he said. “If the number of bullets is reduced, he is to be punished administratively. This is important. One bullet is bought for four US dollars and if he loses one bullet, he will be fined by paying eight US dollars, and through this punishment, he will be careful not to waste the bullets that belong to the government. ”

Major-General Abraham Manyuat said there is a proliferation of small arms and light weapons in South Sudan and this is part of the effort to prevent illegal arms getting into the hands of the wrong people.