Trading life, trading death: the flow of small arms from Mozambique to Malawi

In a region apparently awash with weapons and plagued with rising levels of armed crime, Malawi is a welcome exception to these characteristics. In early 2007 there were only 9,320 legally registered firearms in Malawi excluding those used by the security forces, compared to just under 87,000 in Zambia and nearly 4 million in South Africa.
The flow of arms from Mozambique to Malawi has been attributed to factors such as

• The bilateral trade context.: The author explains that Mozambique is one of the country’s main trading partners, exporting goods there provisionally recorded as worth MWK 20.5 billion in 2005, almost 13 per cent of Malawi’s total imports that year. 
• The extent of the small arms flow from Mozambique to Malawi and the reasons for this: The author points out that the widely expressed view about Mozambique in Malawi is that it is where most of the illegal firearms in Malawi come from and the growing proliferation problem is attributed to a number of factors which relate to the residual effect of arms proliferation within the region as a result of the wars against civilians in Mozambique and the related activities of the liberation armies. 
• Possible Mozambican small arms trade routes into Malawi: In this section the author gives details of the trading routes.

Conclusion
In Malawi, less has been made by domestic civil society and the media than in Zambia about the problem of police and armed forces firearms being loaned out for crime, but the issue appears to be of more significance than the Malawian police are prepared to concede.

Malawians should remain vigilant about the inflow of illegal firearms from Mozambique and, indeed, all Malawi’s neighbours. But they should not blind themselves to domestic firearms proliferation issues regarding either the disbanded political militia or the police and armed forces’ own weapons. Violent crime, like charity, usually begins at home.