The Ethiopian parliament has passed a law to regulate gun ownership to curb increased regional ethnic violence, according to Reuters news agency.

The new law requires that each region outlines the legal age that one can acquire a gun and also limits the number of guns an individual can have.

Those who break the new law will get up to to three years in prison.

Legislator Tesfaye Daba was quoted by Reuters as having told parliament that there was "a significant number of guns in our society since the previous government".

The new law will stop the importation of guns by private companies and only allow certain government institutions to trade in guns.

Those found to have involved themselves in arms trafficking would face prison terms of eight to 20 years.