EU offers support to secure the EAC borders

The European Union has pledged to support the East African Community (EAC) partner states to curb security threats across their borders.

This was revealed by the EU Head of Delegation to Tanzania and the EAC, Amb. Manfredo Fanti, while addressing the opening session of the first Project Steering Committee of EAC Joint Response to Regional and Cross-Border Security Threats project held in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

The project is implemented by the EAC and Interpol with 10 million euros of funding geared towards fighting cross-border crimes in the partner states, including money laundering, terrorism, arms trafficking, human trafficking, drug trafficking, and cyber-crime.

Fanti said the EU would implement various peace and security initiatives in East Africa and the Horn of Africa, as well as combat transnational organised crimes such as terrorism that threaten peace in the region.

The diplomat advised the EAC to put funds to the right use before the project expires in 2024.

“Similar EU-funded programmes include anti-money laundering, countering the financing of terrorism in the Greater Horn of Africa, which aims to strengthen the anti-money laundering and financial investigative capacity of countries in the Greater Horn of Africa, to disrupt criminal networks and their love of illicit finances,” said Amb. Fanti. 

The EAC Deputy Secretary-General for Planning and Infrastructure, Steven Mlote, promised the commitment of the community to support the peace and security sector in its partner states.

Gideon Kimilu, the Head of the Interpol Regional Bureau based in Nairobi, said Interpol would collaborate with the EAC partner states, EAC Secretariat and the EU to ensure that peace and security are achieved.

“This is particularly so in the multi-jurisdictional nature of serious transnational crimes such as terrorism and other transnational crimes that threaten national, regional, and international peace, security, and stability,” he said.  

 “The consequences of these crimes have been very serious and have resulted in deaths, injuries, disruption of social and economic activities, and the promotion of fear and despondency among citizens,” he added. 

Plan in place

On Tuesday, an Ethiopian delegation led by the speaker of the House of People’s Representatives, Tagesse Chaffo, met with President Salva Kiir assuring him that Ethiopia would cooperate with South Sudan in curbing border insecurity.

 “The meeting [was] centred on security issues in the regions bordering South Sudan and Ethiopia. The delegation also discussed issues pertaining to cattle rustling, child abduction, infrastructure development, and border trade in the areas bordering South Sudan and Ethiopia,” the statement from the office of the president stated.

Chaffo said the two countries were expected to form a joint committee to settle disputes that might arise at their borders.

“We have exchanged information and discussed how to work closely for the common goods of the two countries. We are going to form a joint forum to discuss problems whenever they arise,” said Tagesse.

Sealing borders

The Director-General of Civil Registry, Nationality, Passports and Immigration, Lt Gen Atem Marol Biar, in an exclusive interview with the City Review disclosed the initiative to seal all the openings at the country’s borders to fight to smuggle.

He noted that some borders were occupied by the SPLM/A-IO and still had illegal openings.

“Borders should be closed because currently most of the borders have open areas where people can sneak inside, especially the borders occupied by SPLM/A-IO,” he said.

He stated that they would soon conduct a joint workshop with the Ethiopian Immigration officers at Gambella to clear the way for the Ethiopia-South Sudan border opening.

 “We will meet with the Ethiopian Minister of Interior so that we can jointly train officers at Gambella before the opening of the border,” he stated.

Last month, the Ethiopian embassy in Juba vowed to cooperate with the government of South Sudan to curb human trafficking after four Eritreans were apprehended at Juba International Airport after being smuggled from Addis Ababa.