[Published: Wednesday October 07 2009]
Armed violence kills 2,000 a day worldwide - groups
New York, 07 Oct-(ANA)-More than 2,000 people around the world are dying from armed violence each day, advocacy groups have said.
A report for the groups by British-based Oxfam urged nations to launch negotiations on a treaty to regulate the arms trade.
The report was issued as a U.N. General Assembly committee began considering a draft resolution that would set a timetable for negotiations with the aim of concluding a treaty in 2012.
Since most governments agreed in 2006 on the need to regulate the global arms trade, an estimated 2.1 million people had died as a direct or indirect result of armed violence, the report said.
That worked out at more than 2,000 per day, or more than one every minute - most of them civilians.
Of the deaths, more than 700,000 resulted from armed conflicts, including those in Afghanistan, Somalia, Sudan, Sri Lanka and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the report said.
The figures also include people killed in non-political violence involving firearms.
Oxfam executive director Jeremy Hobbs said eight out of 10 governments wanted agreement on an arms trade treaty. (ANA)
FA/ANA/07 October 2009---
|