from PHYLLIS BIRORI in Kigali, Rwanda
Rwanda Bureau
KIGALI, (CAJ News) – FIFTY-TWO African nations have gathered here in Kigali, Rwanda to try and address increasing threats to peace, security and harmony of the otherwise most peaceful continent on earth – Africa.
Participants drawn from the continent’s security and military personnel, government officials, academics and researchers are attending a three-day National Security Symposium that seeks to tackle any security threats to the continent.
Organised by the Rwanda Defence Force Command and Staff College (RDFCSC) in collaboration with the University of Rwanda, the symposium has attracted a diverse group of experts, including non-Africans.
Rwandan Minister of Defence, Juvenal Marizamunda, officially opened the conference insisting the African continent should urgently confront these security threats before they get worse.
Marizamunda cited mainly terrorism and extremism as serious threats while increasing cases of cyber security threats and the destabilizing impacts of climate change, food insecurity, and unfair trade practices as threats the continent should mitigate.
The 2024 Rwanda military and security symposium has been dubbed: “Contemporary Security Challenges: The African Perspective”.
The conference is aimed at finding home-made security solutions that would deal severe blows to youth radicalization in the continent, food insecurity, international violent extremism, global energy crisis and transitions, climate change and debt traps in general.
Despite the fact that all 55 African countries successfully liberated themselves from European colonialism, imperialism and slavery, however the West still continues to throw tantrum of sponsoring terrorism, removal of democratically elected African governments, use the Bretton Woods Institutions, mainly the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) to keep the continent trapped in vicious financial debt, a development that denies Africa to grow economically.
– CAJ News