- A communiqué at the 41st SADC Ordinary Summit of the Heads of State and government in Lilongwe, on August 19 announced that Tanzania will host the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Counter-Terrorism Centre.
- The establishment of the centre is part of the SADC Regional Counter-Terrorism Strategy approved by Summit in 2015, and reflects the region’s determination to focus on thwarting terrorism threats and cybercrime.
A communiqué at the 41st SADC Ordinary Summit of the Heads of State and government in Lilongwe, on August 19 announced that Tanzania will host the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Counter-Terrorism Centre. The establishment of the centre is part of the SADC Regional Counter-Terrorism Strategy approved by Summit in 2015 and reflects the region’s determination to focus on thwarting terrorism threats and cybercrime. The outgoing SADC Executive Secretary, Dr Stergomena Tax, said the mandate of the centre is to offer dedicated and strategic advisory services to the region on terrorism threats and cybercrime, which challenged the region in the past year.
With the commencement of the centre, the region will enhance efforts and the coordination of measures to address terrorism as well as enable synergies with National and Regional Early Warning Centres. Prior to the summit, SADC’s Ministerial Committee of the Organ (MCO) meeting had agreed to fasten the implementation of the Regional Counter-Terrorism Strategy and its Action Plan, and recommendations of the Security Threats Assessment Report.
