Overview
- UN deputy disarmament chief Adedeji Ebo warned that over one billion firearms circulate worldwide, driving a cross‑border chain of violence that fuels conflict, crime and displacement.
- Ebo flagged the growing presence of 3D‑printed ghost guns without serial numbers in illicit markets in Western Europe and Latin America, complicating conventional tracing.
- INTERPOL’s Roraima Ana Andriani reported more than two million entries in the iARMS database and urged explicit roles for INTERPOL in sanctions and arms‑embargo mandates after multinational operations seized thousands of weapons.
- The UK highlighted Somalia’s deployment of AmTag chemical taggants under a pilot program to make national ammunition stockpiles traceable, alongside support for regional frameworks and work on emerging weapons technologies.
- Haiti’s briefing underscored acute insecurity tied to illicit weapons, with an estimated 270,000 to 500,000 firearms in circulation and roughly 45,000 legally registered as armed gangs hold key urban areas and routes.