East Africa intelligence agencies vow to work towards "peaceful and secure Africa"

The East African military intelligence agencies on Saturday wrapped up their meeting in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, where they consulted on regional security, terrorism and other issues of common concerns.

The forum, attended by Ethiopia, Djibouti, Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda, stressed a need for continued vigilance and concerted efforts among the regional countries to strengthen cooperation in combating security challenges.

The meeting took stock of the implementation status of the conclusions of previous meeting and implementation steps that had been agreed upon.

According to a statement issued by the Ethiopia ministry of defence, the military agencies have signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly combat terrorism and to counter anti-peace forces that pose threat to regional peace and security.

The regional meeting is said to have provided an opportunity to review the security situation in the volatile East Africa region.

In this regard, the military intelligence agencies agreed to jointly work together on border security, cyber security, social media, social issues, environmental protection and youth unemployment, among others in a bid to create a "peaceful and secure Africa"

In addition to security issues, participants of the forum exchanged experience in the field.

The participants also visited Ethiopia's Defence Headquarters, Information Network Security Agency (INSA) and the Ethiopian Artificial Intelligence Institute.

The forum finally decided the next round of consultations to be held in Uganda.