TANZANIA is on right track in maintenance of peace and security as well as preventing and fighting terrorism and violent extremism in the country and the continent at large.
The commitment was made in New York, US by the Minister for Foreign Affairs and East African Cooperation, Ambassador Liberata Mulamula at the Meeting of the Peace and Security Council at ministerial level.
The meeting that took place on the side-lines of the 77th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) that is also being attended by the Vice-President, Dr Philip Mpango determined to prevent and fight terrorism and violent extremism in the continent.
Tanzanian Permanent Representative to the Africa Union (AU), Mr Innocent Shiyo told the ‘Sunday News’ that Ambassador Mulamula told the meeting that Tanzania has taken several steps in fighting tourism, some of them being establishment of a national centre to counter terrorism and putting in place a unit to tackle money laundering, enacting money laundering combating law.
The minister also said that status of Tanzania has gone up, as the country has been selected to host the counter-terrorism centre in its commercial hub Dar es Salaam to enhance, facilitate and combat terrorism threats in Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) member countries.
Once operational, the centre is expected to synergise with the SADC member states’ national and regional early warning centres. Tanzania offered to host the Regional Counter-Terrorism Centre that will deal with security threats vigorously.
The centre comes at a time when the SADC states extended the mandate of the regional troop deployment fighting insurgents in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado. Member states that form the regional economic bloc are South Africa, Angola, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Tanzania, Zambia, Comoros, Mauritius, Malawi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Madagascar, Mozambique, Namibia, and Seychelles.
Ambassador Mulamula proposed that fight against all types of terrorism should be the first priority for all countries and reiterated the call to form a ministerial committee to counter terrorism as it was agreed by the head of states who met in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea this year.
She insisted on importance of strengthening the oversight role of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union to ensure good coordination and cooperation between all stakeholders in the fight against terrorism of all kinds.
The minister said it is pertinent for countries to ratify different African Union legal instruments, including countering terrorism, transboundary cooperation agreement and maritime security agreement to strengthen efforts to prevent and combat terrorism.
The meeting was called and led by the Ghana’s Minister for Foreign Affairs and Regional Cooperation, Shirley Botchwey, who is also Chairperson of the AU Peace Council for the month of September.
Others who attended the meeting are AU Commission Chairman, Mr Moussa Faki Mahamat and executive secretaries of regional institutions.
Deliberations of the meeting included condemning all types of terrorism in Africa, expressed concern on increasing terrorism acts and violent extremism in the continent, to enhance continental and regional strategies to counter terrorism, augment cooperation and coordination on early information sharing in order to tame, tackle and end terrorism.
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