ADDIS ABABA – The government of the United States has provided counter proliferation awareness training to various security related government offices.
According to a Press Release US Embassy sent to The Ethiopian Herald the training was conducted through the US Department of Defense (DoD) – Defense Threat Reduction Agency’s (DTRA) International Counter proliferation Program (ICP) in partnership with the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Regional Security Office (RSO), and the Office of Security Cooperation (OSC).
The training which took place from October 28 to November 01, 2019 is the first of its kind on counter proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), WMD detection, interdiction and investigation aims to build measurable and lasting capacity of partner nations’ law enforcement agencies.
Twenty-eight (28) experts from the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF), Federal Police Commission (FPC), Immigration Nationality and Vital Events Agency (INVEA), Ethiopian Wildlife Conservation Authority (EWCA), Ethiopian Customs Commission, Ethiopian Radiation Protection Authority (ERPA), and the Addis Ababa City Administration Fire and Disaster and Risk Management Commission participated in the ICP training.
The participants gained an understanding of the importance of international and interagency cooperation on proliferation issues such as dual-use materials and equipment, the role of export control regimes, border security and terrorism, and increased their awareness on how these topics relate to Ethiopia.
At the opening ceremony, James Markley, the U.S. Embassy Addis Ababa Legal Attaché recognized the importance of the U.S. – Ethiopia partnership, acknowledged the hard work of the trainees and thanked them for their ongoing service to create a stable Ethiopia and Horn of Africa. He also expressed the importance for Ethiopia to develop an organic WMD capacity to include detection, interdiction, and investigation.
After reforms by Prime Minister Dr. Abiy Ahmed, Ethiopia is playing a great role in creating stability in the Horn of Africa. The US Department of Defense is helping to strengthen Ethiopia’s capacity in the fight against terrorism and in countering the proliferation of WMD.
The Ethiopian Herald Nov 02/2019
BY STAFF REPORTER
