Andeleki says 171 gun cases brought only 45 arrests in 11 months as Government destroys 5,000 firearms

The Ministry of Home Affairs and Internal Security has destroyed 5,000 firearms, and Minister Dr Clement Andeleki has disclosed that police recorded 171 firearm-related cases between September 2025 and July 2026, resulting in 45 arrests. Speaking at the destruction on Thursday 5 November, Dr Andeleki said the exercise was not only an international obligation but a practical step towards a safer country. "A culture of gun violence has no place in our country," he said. The firearms were described as having been surrendered by members of the public during a firearms amnesty. ## Background This is the second such exercise in a year. In November 2025, about 3,000 firearms were destroyed at Lilayi Police Training College. Of those, only 21 were handed in during that year's amnesty, while 2,746 were forfeited through the Zambia Police and 233 through the Department of National Parks and Wildlife. At that event, then Home Affairs Minister Jack Mwiimbu said the Government was reviewing the Firearms Act, Chapter 110 of the Laws of Zambia. Officials linked the exercise to the African Union's plan to silence the guns by 2030. Mr Mwiimbu earlier told Parliament that about 38,572 civilian firearms were estimated to be legally registered, and that more than 6,500 had been surrendered for destruction since a general amnesty began in 2011. He said nobody knows the true number of guns in civilian hands, because of unregistered weapons, illegal trade and conflict in the region. He also raised concern about people hired as contract killers and about unlawful gunfire in public and private places. ## Why it matters A gun that has been cut up cannot be used in a robbery, a killing or a poaching camp, so the exercise has real value. But the figures point to a harder problem. With 45 arrests against 171 cases, many firearm crimes in that period did not lead to an arrest, as far as the numbers given show. For a shopkeeper in a compound or a family on a farm, what matters is whether so