LUSAKA, Sept. 11 (Xinhua) -- The Zambian government said on Monday that it will next week launch a program to encourage citizens to voluntarily surrender their guns.

The exercise was meant to support the African Union (AU) Amnesty month, an initiative launched last year for the surrender and collection of weapons as part of efforts towards silencing guns in Africa by the year 2020.

Minister of Home Affairs Stephen Kampyongo said the government was committed to supporting the initiative for the surrender of illegal weapons as the illicit flow of arms was contributing towards exacerbating insecurity and violence in various parts of Africa.

"We are promoting and organizing initiatives for the voluntary surrender of illicit weapons in civilian possession on conditions of anonymity and immunity from prosecution. We are equally developing appropriate evaluation frameworks for assessing the effectiveness of these initiatives at varying stages of implementation of Africa Amnesty Month," he said.

He called on the media to play a positive role in publicizing and raising awareness on the observance of the Africa Amnesty Month.