Cameroon

Cameroon is affected by rising levels of criminality and insecurity amid separatist conflicts in the Northwest and Southwest regions and an increasing number of attacks from Boko Haram in the country's Far North region. The number of small arms and light weapons in illegal circulation surpasses the number of registered authorisations to carry weapons, and it is reported that the country has long been a source, transit and destination country for weapons and ammunition trafficking.

In terms of weapons and ammunition management, Cameroon notably receives assistance from the UN Office for Disarmament Affairs and UN Development Project's Saving Lives Entity (SALIENT) project to strengthen its small arms and light weapons control and reduce armed violence, but the country’s national legal framework and weapons and ammunition management capacities still need to be improved.

Source: "Cameroon," Rule of Law in Armed Conflicts Project (RULAC), Geneva Academy of International Humanitarian Law and Human Rights, updated January 21, 2021, https://www.rulac.org/browse/countries/cameroon#collapse1accord; Oluwole Ojewale, “Cameroon alone can’t stop illicit arms flooding into the country,” Institute for Security Studies, August 26, 2021, https://issafrica.org/iss-today/cameroon-alone-cant-stop-illicit-arms-flooding-into-the-country; Nicolas Florquin, Sigrid Lipott and Francis Wairagu, Weapons Compass: Mapping Illicit Small Arms Flows in Africa (Geneva: African Union and Small Arms Survey, 2019), https://www.smallarmssurvey.org/sites/default/files/resources/SAS-AU-Weapons-Compass.pdf; UNODA, Programmes Financed from Voluntary Contributions. 2020-2021 (New York: UNODA, 2021), https://front.un-arm.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/xb-report-2021.pdf.