WASHINGTON (Halbeeg News) – The United States has discussed with its partners over common East African regional challenges and ways to share information.
According to statement issued on Tuesday, senior military intelligence officials from East Africa, Europe, the U.S., Canada, and representatives from the African Union Mission to Somalia met during the annual East Africa Directors of Military Intelligence Conference held between 3rd and 4th of April.
The conference, hosted by the AFRICOM Intelligence Directorate (J2), is aimed at developing military intelligence relationships.
Rear Adm. Heidi Berg, U.S. Africa Command director of intelligence has called for intelligence sharing to critical issues in East Africa.
“Countering violent extremist organization such as al-Shabaab or ISIS-Somalia, interdicting illicit trafficking, tracking foreign fighter movement or ensuring maritime security–all require a comprehensive, integrated intelligence picture,” she said.
Rear said the importance of the conference was to build trust across partnering nations.
“This is a chance to bring together intelligence professionals, often with decades of background and experience, to address the most challenging problems we face today,” she said.
She said East Africa is a highly complex, dynamic environment in which threats rapidly evolve and change. Intelligence sharing and collaboration between partner nations are important to confront these threats.
“Our adversaries are adaptive and exploit the seams in intelligence,” Berg added. “Intelligence sharing allows for nuanced integration of intelligence and perspectives across multiple regional stakeholders to provide a much more comprehensive and detailed picture,” Rear stated.
This year, 34 representatives from 10 African partner nations attended the conference. For those nations, including Djibouti, regional cooperation is important.
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