Upgrading Armories and Destroying Weapons and Ammo

Nikita Mohammed

According to Nikita Mohammed, the Regional Program Manager for the Mines Advisory Group, they are also working with the Belize Police Department to destroy weapons and ammunitions that have been confiscated.  They will also be looking at various ways in which physical security of armories at these various agencies can be upgraded.

Nikita Mohammed, Regional Program Manager, MAG

“Since 2022, the Mines Advisory Group is working in collaboration with CARICOM Impacts under a formal memorandum of understanding.  Our focus is very much on supporting CARICOM member states, including Belize, to reduce armed violence in the region which we know affects every country in the Caribbean.  So we are working here in particular in Belize following an assessment that was done in early 2023 to understand the state of armories and ammunition stores.  The idea is that we were trying to reduce the risk of weapons and ammunition being diverted from legal authorities, from state authorities into criminal networks.  So we are supporting here in Belize with weapons and ammunitions management training, specifically for the Belize Police Department, the Belize Defense Force, the Belize Customs and Excise and the Belize Coast Guard.  So this is what we just finished here.  We had a graduation ceremony, we had twenty-three persons from those different state entities that received that formal training and we are very hopeful that they would use the tools and knowledge that they have learned to actually implement in their work.  Besides that, we are also working with the Belize state authorities to destroy weapons and ammunition, as well as to provide some physical security upgrades to their armories so that it’s more secure.”