Honourable Minister of Defence, Gen James Kabarebe opened on 16 May 2016 the Fourth National Security Symposium at RDF Command and Staff College in Nyakinama, Musanze District. The opened Symposium is an annual event organized by the College for the benefit of the students.
The Symposium’s theme for this year is the “Contemporary Security Challenges: The African Perspective”. The overall aim will be to constitute a platform for deliberating on matters of national, regional and continental security, with a view to developing practical solutions.
Presiding over the official opening ceremony of the Symposium, Gen Kabarebe recalled some security threats our region is facing, yet the high national security is highly important for the development of our Nations.
“The FDLR genocidal force and other negative forces operating in Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo are not only a threat to Rwanda, but also to the region as a whole. Likewise the prevailing insecurity in Burundi does not affect Burundians alone, but the region as a whole”, Gen Kabarebe underscored. The Minister also said that “intrastate conflicts in Burundi, Somalia, Central Africa Republic require appropriate response mechanisms from within Africa”.
He further advised Senior Command and Staff Course Four Students to use the Symposium as an opportunity to acquire more skills that will enable them to perform their future duties, with clarity and understanding of the geo-political nature of contemporary security challenges on the continent and beyond.
The importance of the Symposium on Security matters for the Students was also underlined by the Commandant of the RDF Command and Staff College, Maj Gen John Bosco Kazura. The Commandant recalled in this respect that the discussions to be conducted “will significantly contribute to help the College to graduate officers equipped with the right skills and capacities to understand their role in efficiency and effectively fulfilling their future missions”.
The first day of the fourth Security Symposium covered two topics. The first one was on the right of countries to intervene in other countries’ territory, in the context of the ‘African Union Response Mechanisms to conflicts in Africa: the Regional standby Forces in perspective’. The panelists were the Former EAC Secretary General, Dr Richard Sezibera, Gen Patrick Nyamvumba, the RDF Chief of Defence Staff and Gen I Maulana, Malawi Chief of Defence Force.
The second topic discussed “Contemporary Approaches in the fight against Terrorism in Africa”. The panel for this session was composed of Maj Gen Robert Kibochi, Assistant CDF in charge of Operations, Plans, Doctrine and Training, Kenya Defence Forces; Brig Gen Innocent Kabandana, RDF Special Operation Force Commander and Dr Vladmir Antwi-Danso, Director Academic Studies Ghana Armed Forces.
The fourth National Security Symposium will be concluded on 18 May 2016. Throughout its deliberations, Senior Command and Staff Course students will have the opportunity of interacting with policy makers, security practitioners, subject matter experts and scholars of security studies.
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