Council of Ministers of Defence Gives Go-Ahead

The Council of Ministers of Defence from Eastern African region, concluded the week-long series of Policy Organs Meetings which started with the Experts’ Working Group to the Chiefs of Defense meetings which took place between 14th – 18th December 2020 at Radisson Blu Hotel and Convention Centre in Kigali, Rwanda.

The Council of Ministers gave their go-ahead for EASF to roll into the promising year 2021 after a challenging one with an Approved Budget, Activity Plan and other important Policy Documents. The meeting ended on a positive and optimistic note from the new Chairperson of the Council, H.E. Hassan Omar Mohamed from the Republic of Djibouti, saying that EASF is now ready and fully engaged to embrace the year ahead with the support of all Member States.
 
It was the Guest of Honour, Honourable Minister Albert Murasira who officially opened the Council of Ministers of Defence meeting. In his opening address the minister highlighted the major achievements of the EASF despite the challenges of Covid-19 faced by the organization. The Minister renewed Rwanda’s support and commitment towards EASF as well as to the peace agenda in the region.
 
In his representative role as Chair, Friends of EASF, the EASF Civilian Advisor, Mr. Peter Zartsdahl, said ‘’…in overcoming the highly difficult circumstances in continuing work and operations at EASF in a safe and responsible way, the “Friends” would like to congratulate you with the results achieved. We would like just to mention a few such others as the successful Election Monitoring Mission to the Seychelles and the continued work on improving EASF’s operational capacity and readiness for mission deployment, which has been trained in various ways such as the Integrated Mission Planning Courses, and the Mission Leadership Course conducted this fall’’ pointed out Mr. Zartsdahl.

The Director of EASF, Brig. Gen. Getachew Shiferaw Fayisa highlighted the importance of the EASF Policy Organs’ Meetings. He noted the importance for the region to work together to counter threats and enhance regional integration. The Director also reminded the audience that EASF has been able to verify the pledged capabilities, deployed an Election Observer Mission to the Republic of Seychelles and most importantly, EASF is multidimensional and heavily engaged in the promotion of peace and security.

As closing the council of Minsters’ of Defence session the chairmanship of the organisation was handed over to Djibouti as the new chair taking over from Union of Comoros who served for one year as per the EASF’s policy. The Republic of Kenya has also accepted to host the next Policy Organ meeting next year.

EASF Civilian Advisor, Mr. Peter Zartsdahl Delivers his Keynote Speech to the Council of Ministers.