18th Ordinary Session of the Council of Ministers

The meeting was officially opened by His Excellency the President of the Union of Comoros Dr Ikililou Dhoinine. In his opening statement, he paid tribute to the African Union for conceiving the African Peace and Security Architecture(APSA) which is designed to respond to the urgent challenges facing the continent and for commended EASF for making such remarkable efforts towards resolving the prevailing conflicts in Africa.

He expressed appreciation of the commitment and determination of the Eastern African Region Heads of State and Government as well as the Ministers of Defence and Security to succeed in keeping the peace in the region as part of recommendations by the United Nations. He thanked the Director of the EASF Secretariat and his entire team for their good work and loyal service to the organization.

During the opening session, Hon James Kabarebe, the Chairperson of the Council of Ministers of Defence and Security, also the Minister for Defence of the Republic of Rwanda, recalled the decision in June 2014 by the Heads of State and Government of the Eastern Africa region, to fast-track the achievement of Full Operational Capability (FOC) and congratulated Member States for the work so far done.

The Director of EASF, Ambassador Issimail Chanfi, thanked EASF Member States for their commitment towards planning and participating in the Command Post Exercise “CPX Mashariki Salam 2014”, which took place in November 2014, and which marked the last milestone towards achievement of FOC

In his opening remarks, Col Soren Knudsen, Chairperson of the Friends of EASF, congratulated EASF and its Member States, and said noted with appreciation that EASF was now ready to deploy.

All the ten Member States of EASF were represented in the meeting.