AU deploys 160 new police officers to beef up security in Somalia
The African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) says it has deployed some 160 police officers from Nigeria to support stabilisation efforts in the country.
Mohammed Ibrahim, who commands the 11th Nigerian Formed Police Unit (NFPU) contingent, says the officers will provide support to the Somali police force in line with the Somalia Transition Plan.
"These officers are well-trained and disciplined. They will fulfill the mandate that has been assigned to them, and will not fail their country or the African Union," Ibrahim said in a statement issued in the Somalia capital Mogadishu on Thursday.
ATMIS said the incoming contingent that arrived in Mogadishu on Wednesday replaces another, known as NFPU 10, which recently returned to Nigeria after completing a tour of duty that included helping to provide security during the recent parliamentary and presidential elections.
The ATMIS police component will have 1,040 personnel, including five Formed Police Units (FPUs), and will maintain that number until December 2024, according to the United Nations Security Council Resolution.
The officers are expected to support specialised training, advising, and mentorship of the Somali police force, including in joint patrols and protection of vital installations.
Ibrahim said the officers will also support the service delivery capacity of the Somali police in providing policing across Somalia and help counter violent extremism and social disorder through community policing, public order management, and other crime prevention strategies.
This is Nigeria's 10th police unit to be deployed to Somalia since 2012.
The police-contributing countries of ATMIS are Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Uganda and Zambia, which are deployed across the five operational sectors.
Meanwhile, the 41st Ordinary Session of the Executive Council of the African Union (AU) opened in Lusaka on Thursday, with the host country calling on African countries to enhance agricultural production in order to tackle food insecurity.
The meeting, comprising foreign affairs ministers from member states, is being held under the theme "Building Resilience in Nutrition on the African Continent: Accelerating Human Capital, Social and Economic Communities and Regional Mechanisms".
It runs from July 14-16. Zambian Foreign Affairs minister Stanley Kakubo said the theme was a reminder to member countries to up their efforts in translating the continent's agricultural potential into agricultural growth in order to eliminate hunger and malnutrition.
He said the continent was endowed with various natural resources to enhance agricultural production, noting that Africa has the potential to become food-secure and a net exporter of agricultural products if productivity was enhanced.
Member countries, he said, must take advantage of the coming into force of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCTA) agreement by ensuring value addition to products in order to be competitive in global trade.
The minister said that there was a need for African countries to find alternative financial resources in order to foster the competitiveness of African products as well as seek innovative ways of reducing the cost of capital.
He also called on member states to renew their commitments to attaining Agenda 2063, Africa's development blueprint to achieve inclusive and sustainable socioeconomic development over a 50-year period, and its flagship programmes.
African Union Commission chairperson Moussa Faki Mahamat said the continent faced various challenges that have exposed countries to several vulnerabilities.
Despite the challenges, African countries must rise up and show the world that they are able to dissolve their own problems, he said.
He urged participants at the meeting to find ways to address the organisation's dwindling contributions so that Africa could see a reduction in dependency on partners.
Senegal's Foreign Affairs minister Aissata Tall Sall said the integration of the free trading area was indispensable to Africa's quest to achieve success.
She said the coming into force of the arrangement was the biggest stride made in ensuring the continent's integration agenda.
Member countries must be committed to the arrangement as it will create growth and development for the continent, she added.
This was the first time Zambia was hosting an AU event since 2001, when the southern African nation hosted the summit that drew up the implementation plan of the organisation as part of the transition process from the Organisation of African Unity (OAU).
The meeting was expected to receive reports on the Conference of State Parties of the African Medicines Agency, activation of the Africa Centres for Disease Control (Africa CDC), the status of regional integration in Africa and the division of labour between the AU and regional economic communities.
The meeting will be followed by the fourth AU mid-year coordination meeting on July 17, which 13 African leaders are expected to attend. BY DAILY NATION
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