allAfrica.com: Central Africa: Sub-region Makes Giant Strides in Peace (Page 1 of 1)

The Defence and Security Commission of the Council for Peace and Security (COPAX) in the Central African Sub-region has taken giant strides in consolidating the peace-keeping mission in the Central African Republic and measures to safeguard the vital interests of the Economic Community of Central African States in the Gulf of Guinea. The eighth meeting of the Peace and Security Commission (CDS) took place at the Yaoundé Conference Centre on 02 May after the experts meeting that began on Monday, 28 April.

Cameroon's Minister Delegate at the Presidency in charge of Defence, Remy Ze Meka, while presiding over the closing ceremony of the meeting said its conclusions responded to the engagement of the Heads of State of the Economic Community of the Central African States (ECCAS) in promoting, maintaining and consolidating peace within the sub-region. Remy Ze Meka expressed satisfaction at the convergence of views to generate the ECCAS multinational force that will take over from the CEMAC peace-keeping force in the Central African Republic and the studies done on putting in place a Maritime Force to safeguard the vital interests of ECCAS-member countries in the Gulf of Guinea. He earlier said during the opening ceremony of Defence and Security Commission meeting that, " because of its economic and strategic importance, the Gulf of Guinea is viewed as a useful zone and as a consequence, it is suffering more and more from problems related to maritime piracy, cross-border crime, drug trafficking as well as trafficking in light arms".

The President of the Defence and Security Commission of COPAX, Lieutenant -General Kalembe said while presenting the general report of the meeting said their objectives were attained. He said, "we have been able to define in a precise manner the mandate of the mission for consolidating peace in the Central African Republic. We also in a clear manner, resolved the problem related to the generation of the civil and military means necessary for the accomplishment of the peace-keeping mission". Concerning the Gulf of Guinea, Kalembe said, " we tackled with success, the question relating to the safeguard of the vital interests of ECCAS-member countries in the Gulf of Guinea". ECCAS-member countries that have maritime boundaries in the Gulf of Guinea include Cameroon, Equatorial Guinea, Sao Tome and Principe, Gabon and Angola.

According to the Secretary General of ECCAS, Louis Sylvain Goma, the transfer of authority from CEMAC peace-keeping forces in the Central African Republic (FOMUC) to the ECCAS multinational force (FOMAC), will be completed before the end of 2008. He however, said in 2010, the ECCAS force will not really be performing. By February this years, all the unit of the force had already been put in place in all the States. To test the efficiency of the force, ECCAS organised the Barh-El-Gazel peace-keeping exercises in Moussoro, Chad in November 2007 that brought together 1600 soldiers and the exercise was financed by the community. According to Louis Sylvain Goma, "another military peace-keeping exercise is envisaged for July 2010 that will enable the African Union to be convinced of our capacities and other improvements to be done". Follow- up measures in promoting peace, security and stability in the Central African Sub-region will be taken during the upcoming Defence and Security Commission meeting in Bujumbura, Burundi.

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