Eastern African states plan how to deal with crises |28 February 2012

The conference, which opened yesterday at Le Meridien Barbarons hotel, is being attended by senior police and military officers from Seychelles, Sudan, Djibouti, Somalia, Rwanda, Burundi, Comoros, Ethiopia and Kenya.

The Seychelles People’s Defence Forces (SPDF) Chief of Staff, Colonel Clifford Roseline, recalled that the meeting has been convened at the request  of the Council of Ministers of Defence and Security of Eastern African Region, during a gathering held in Seychelles on September 17, 2011.

Colonel Roseline said training is a core activity of this institution and as such the documents the delegates will be discussing are crucial towards achieving the full operational capability of the institution.

“As we all know, the intention of the African Union is to develop a continental capability to respond to crises, such as conflicts and disaster that continue to affect development and this cannot be possible without the presence of training institutions in our region,” he said.

The workshop included a site visit at the Seychelles Police Academy during the afternoon.
Two other training centres of excellence in the eastern Africa region are to be identified during the meeting, which will last until Friday.