Swakop Hosts 21st Anniversary of Nam-Botswana Security

Denver Kisting

19 July 2011

WHEN Swakopmund played the host for the 21st Namibia/ Botswana joint permanent commission on defense and security last week, Charles Namoloh, the Minister of Defense said the Sudan “remains a security concern in Africa”.

Namoloh said the Sudan and South Sudan “are still far from reaching the necessary level of stability and they will need African support to achieve that”.

The Minister further said the gathering along the Namibian coast “is taking place at a time when Africa is experiencing significant political and military changes”. He added: “Over the past seven months, we have witnessed spontaneous political changes in many African countries, starting with the uprising in Tunisia in December 2010 and in Egypt in January 2011 that led to the ousting of governments in these two countries and spread, as part of the Arab spring, to Libya where a war is continuing unabated.”

Namoloh expressed his satisfaction with the regulation of cross-border crime between Namibia and Botswana.

For his part, Namoloh’s counterpart, Botswana’s Acting Minister of Defense, Justice and Security Edwin Batshu agreed with Namoloh. “I am happy to note that some gains have been realised in our growth together. When we started we were challenged by several issues, amongst them being facilitation of movement of goods and people between our countries; poaching of animals across the borders; illegal border crossing; stock theft and lack of communication links between us.”

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