SOHAG - In the absence of security, Upper Egyptian cities have become major arms markets. In the streets of Upper Egyptian cities, towns and villages, you can buy weapons in the cafés and even on the street. This is good news for gun dealers, drug traffickers, gold traders and anyone planning a vendetta killing. Most of the guns have been smuggled in from Sudan, Iraq, Israel and Russia. Since the revolution, their sales have risen fivefold. A major arms dealer in Sohag Governorate, about 500km south of Cairo, who goes by the sobriquet of 'The Mayor', said that weapons were much cheaper before the January 25 revolution. “Pistols used to cost LE500, but now they fetch LE1,500 [around $250]; German pistols have increased from LE5,000 to LE7,000, while Belgian guns now go for LE26,000, Iraqi automatic weapons for LE6,000 and Israeli ones for LE10,000,” he added. In Qena Governorate, 650km south of Cairo, gun dealing is widespread, especially in Dishna, Abu Hazam and Humerit Dom. One wonders how such weapons enter Upper Egypt, despite the many police patrols and border guards working day and night. The Mayor says that this trade is nothing new and that it's handed down from father to son, adding that each family normally specialises in guns from a specific country, for example Israel or Russia. He told Al-Ahram semi-official newspaper that guns are normally smuggled in across the desert from Sudan on camelback. They are hidden in caves until the purchaser is ready is to buy them. Alternatively, they're smuggled by boat down the River Nile. Intriguingly, most of the arms traders sold on the black market, especially automatic guns and ammunition too, have been originally confiscated by police officers. Last October, a report from the Ministry of Interior indicated that trading in unlicensed weapons was on the increase, as was the number of murders committed by people using such weapons. The report added that as many as 25 per cent of the weapons in possession of citizens had been stolen from the storehouses of the security directorates. “I buy pistols for me and my family, to defend ourselves from the thugs,” said a man called Ashraf Shiba, while shopping for imported guns in a shop in Attaba Square, downtown Cairo. Some ladies carry round starting pistols in order to deter aggressors. The head of the Supreme State Court, Reda Shawkat, says that starting pistols don't need a licence because you can't kill people with them. Saeed Hosni, the sales director of a company that imports arms, says that their sales vary from day to day, “but of course they will fall once the police come back to the streets”.
