Ministers of Defence Conclude the Policy Organs Meeting

The Eastern Africa Council of Ministers of Defence finalized the 15th Extraordinary Policy Organs Meeting on 3rd August, 2017 in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.

The session concluded with key decisions on preparations for the forthcoming Field Training Exercise (FTX 2017) slated for November in Port Sudan in the Republic of The Sudan.

Hon Siraj Fegessa, Minister for Defence of the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia graced the occasion. In his opening remarks he acknowledged the challenges facing the Eastern Africa region and their effect on international peace and stability. “Without Peace, Africa will continue to be deprived of effective integration in the globalized village,” he added.

Lt Gen Ali Mohamed Salem, Chairperson of the Council of Ministers and Minister for Defence of the Republic of The Sudan, expressed concern about the prevailing security threats in the Eastern Africa region and the reality of having to constantly deal with terrorist attacks, civil wars, internal attacks and many other threats. “The feeling of lack of peace is not a comfortable environment that we want to operate in,” he said. Gen Salem encouraged EASF to work in partnership other regional organizations in order to strengthen collective responsibility and response mechanisms that can effectively address security threats.

Dr Abdillahi Bouh, Director EASF Secretariat expressed appreciation to the Ministers of Defence and Security for granting him guidance and direction to EASF. He further expressed confidence that FTX 2017 will go a long way in ensuring the Eastern Africa region and the continent at large, have a reliable instrument to project combat and political capabilities for peace and security.

The Minister’s session was preceded by session of Eastern Africa Committee of Defence Staff which deliberated on various issues and presented the recommendations for consideration by the Ministers. The issues discussed included the Exercise Design, Manning List and the Budget.

FTX 2017 aims to train and test EASF’s ability to plan generate, deploy, sustain and recover a multi-national and multi-dimensional Force in accordance with the African Union’s doctrine.  It will bring together more than one thousand personnel from the military, civilian and police components drawn from all the ten Member States to assess their ability to participate in a multidimensional Peace Support Operation (PSO).

FTX 2017 will be the third FTX since inception of EASF.  The first one was conducted in Djibouti in 2009 and the second one in Jinja, Uganda in 2013.

Photo Gallery: Ministers of Defence and Security, Addis Ababa, August 2017