Getahun Tsegaye 

Addis Abeba – East African Military Intelligence Institutions agreed to work on regional peace and security issues after a two days long forum held in Addis Abeba, the Ethiopian National Defense Force reported. On the other hand, Addis Ababa peace and security administration bureau announced that it is ramping up community security patrol activities to prevent crime. 

Djibouti, South Sudan, Somalia, Sudan Tanzania, Uganda, and Ethiopia participated in the East African Defense Intelligence Forum that took place between April 16-and 17, 2022. The countries signed an agreement to work jointly to fend off ‘terrorists’ and ‘anti-peace forces’, the report said.  

According to the report, the countries agreed to create a “peaceful and secure Africa” by working together on the border, cyber, social media, social affairs, environmental protection as well as youth unemployment, and several other issues in addition to security issues. 

This comes a few weeks after the Chief of Staff of the (ENDF), Field Marshal Berhanu Jula, and his counterpart Chief of the Kenyan Defense Forces, General Robert Kariuki Kibochi, held talks in Nairobi on 30 March during which the two agreed to take lead to strengthen the East Africa Standby Force (EASF) and work together for mutual peace and security, the Ethiopian Embassy in Nairobi said. 

The deputy head of Addis Abeba peace and security bureau’s peace values department, Lidiya Girma asserted that the bureau is working with the community to prevent and control illegal activities in the city. 

She further explained that work was underway to reorganize a previously existing public army from central command to district level based on residential blocs aimed at making it public based and start operating in the near future. 

She also added that capacity-building training will be provided to over 30,000 members of civil community patrol in all sub-cities as of today. 

Source: Addis Standard