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EU, EAC sign 10 Million Euros for Joint Response to Regional and Cross Border Security Threats

East African Community Headquarters, Arusha, Tanzania, 27th November, 2019: The EU Ambassador to Tanzania and the East African Community, H.E. Manfredo Fanti, and the EAC Secretary-General, H.E. Libérat Mfumukeko, today launched a new 10 million Euros (approx. TShs25.38 billion) joint programme to address regional and cross border security threats in the region.

The programme is a regional response to the various and growing security threats across the EAC region. It will work both on enhancing the technical capacities and building trust between the law enforcement agencies in the EAC Partner States. Without mutual trust, data and information will not be shared. The shared aim is to intercept those engaged in transnational organised crime.

This 45-month programme will be implemented by the EAC Secretariat and the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol). It will complement several other initiatives to provide peace and security to the people of the EAC.

“Cooperation in this area can work only if there is mutual trust among law enforcement agencies and this is what the programme aims at,” said the EU Ambassador to Tanzania and the East African Community.

In his remarks, Amb. Mfumukeko hailed the long standing partnership between the EAC and the EU in the peace and security sector which he said was a key enabler to the integration process in East Africa.

“The current phase of the EDF11 has set aside 85 million Euros for a variety of interventions supportive to the various integration initiatives, among them peace and security. The EAC is also a beneficiary of the 528 million Euros through a regional enveloped that also covers IGAD, COMESA, IOC and SADC,” said Amb. Mfumukeko.

“Since 2007, the EU has extended support to the EAC through various initiatives including the APSA support project (about Euro 10 million cumulative to date) whose 4th phase is still under negotiation, the Conflict Prevention, Management and Resolution Project whose implementation ended in 2012 (4.8 million Euros) and the Eastern and Southern Africa-Indian Ocean (ESA-IO) Maritime Security Project whose implementation ended on 14th October, 2019 (11.6 million Euros),” said the Secretary General.

“The project being launched today will seek to reduce opportunities for transnational and cross border threats to the integration process through support to policy development and implementation, enhanced political accountability, structured and institutional information exchange mechanisms, consolidation and extension of ballistic examination capacity, and extension of I/24-7  connectivity to as many One Stop Border Posts as possible,” he said.

The Secretary General said the efficient implementation of the proposed interventions will enable the law enforcement agencies to, at a regional level, implement information sharing mechanisms that will facilitate rapid and timely response to threats and enhance security as greater gains are made in the implementation of the EAC Customs Unions and Common Market protocols.

This project will also assist the EAC in the implementation of the recently adopted Peace and Security Protocol and feed into the broader African commitment of “silencing the guns in Africa by 2020.”

Background:

The Financing Agreement was signed on 20/09/2019

From the European side, this action is guided by the overarching objectives of the 2003 European Security Strategy, the 2007 Joint Africa-EU Strategy (JAES), underpinning the principles of regional ownership and mutual responsibility, and supporting the added value of regional cooperation. All these objectives were reaffirmed during the 5th African Union-EU Summit in November 2017 where Peace and Security was again at the core, particularly in the recognition of the growing terrorist threats and trans-boundary criminal activities.

- ENDS -

For more information, please contact:

Simon Peter Owaka
Senior Public Relations Officer
Corporate Communications and Public Affairs Department
EAC Secretariat
Arusha, Tanzania
Tel: +255 768 552087
Email: sowaka [at] eachq.org

About the East African Community Secretariat:

The East African Community (EAC) is a regional intergovernmental organisation of six Partner States, comprising Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda, with its headquarters in Arusha, Tanzania.

The EAC Secretariat is ISO 9001: 2008 Certified

 


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