Southern African countries to enhance early warning systems

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) on Tuesday concluded a meeting of its Ministerial Committee of the Organ (MCO) on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation in Pretoria after stressing the need to enhance early warning systems in the region.

"We discussed how our security framework and regional early warning systems should be improved to ensure that they provide effective and efficient alerts to potential insecurity and instability," South African Minister of International Relations and Cooperation Mait Nkoana-Mashabane said in her closing remarks.

In this regard, the MCO decided that in future, it should include representatives responsible for Disaster Risk Management, Anti-corruption and good governance, in order to fully engage with all potential threats to peace, security and stability in the region, said Nkoana-Mashabane.

The SADC's Organ on Politics, Defence and Security Cooperation is an essential body that is entrusted with the maintenance of peace, stability and security in the region, and also forms an integral part of efforts towards regional integration and development.

The meeting kicked off on Monday to review the political, security and stability challenges in the region, with a view to respond to these emerging security challenges.

"We also discussed the need to develop a comprehensive counter-terrorism strategy in light of some of the emerging security challenges facing the continent and the world," Nkoana-Mashabane said.

She said South Africa is honoured to be hosting the Exercise AMANI AFRICA II Field Training Exercise to operationalize the African Standby Force (ASF).

"We are pleased to be part of strengthening our continent's military response mechanisms. This further illustrates our region's commitment towards self-reliance and interventions led by African nations," Nkoana-Mashanabe said.

The AMANI Africa Exercise is one of the main tools deployed in support of the development of the ASF. It aims at evaluating the state of readiness towards the achievement of full operational capability of the ASF by December 2015.

Once the ASF is operationalized, it will consist of standby arrangements within Africa's five regions composed of multi-dimensional capabilities, including military, police and civilian, anchored in their countries of origin and ready for rapid deployment in the event of a crisis.

"Our priority remains to serve and protect our citizens, and prevent instability and conflict. I am pleased that with the conclusion of this MCO, we can safely say our region is working towards ensuring a stable and peaceful future for our people," she added.