Top security and and defense experts from various countries joined researchers, media professionals and politicians to deliberate on how best Africa can avert security challenges and minimize interference in continental matters.

The deliberations took place at the fourth National Security Symposium held at the RDF Command and Staff College, Nyakinama, Musanze.

The three-day symposium, that ended Wednesday, focused on an African perspective to contemporary security challenges. The discussions also looked at how best Africa can deal with external interference and end the mindset where non-Africans believe they can dictate the continent’s affairs.

The deliberations left students at the RDF College with lots of food-for-thought as they benefited from a range of experienced panelists from various fields.

Cyber Security was one of the challenging topics that was deliberated on during the symposium. The speakers included Brig Gen (Rtd) Yair Cohen, a Cyber Security Expert, with 32-year experience serving with the Israeli Defense Forces, holding various positions including IDF head of cyber intelligence.

Dr Hamadoun Toure, the Executive Director of the Rwanda- Based Smart African Initiative also addressed delegates at the symposium on Cyber security. RDF’s Head of Cyber Security Lt Col David Kanamugire, joined Toure and Cohen in analyzing the emerging cyber threats. The panelists shared their views on measures to curb such threats within the African context.

Terrorism featured prominently at the symposium with Major General Robert Kibochi from the Kenya Defense Forces giving insights on how Africa can fight terrorism. Kenya has had to deal with multiple terror attacks and delegates at the symposium got to hear about the Kenyan experience in combating terror.

The Malawian Chief of Defense Force General Ignacio Maulana alongside General Patrick Nyamvumba RDF’s Chief of Defense Staff and Dr Richard Sezibera, former EAC Secretary General spoke about response mechanisms to conflicts in Africa and the role of the Regional Standby Forces.

Lieutenant General Karenzi Karake, the Defense and Security advisor to President Paul Kagame shared his thoughts on how to effectively combat cross-border negative forces and organized crime.

General Karake alongside Brigadier General Mathew Gureme, Commandant of the Rapid Deployment Capability Centre, UPDF emphasized the importance of inter-agency security cooperation saying that once different organizations and stakeholders in security share knowledge and intelligence, they would effectively eliminate negative forces.

Another high level panelist at the symposium was Dr Chiseche Salome Mibenge from the prestigious Ivy League Stanford University.

Mibenge spoke about the gendered aspect of security, with specific focus on conflict and peace building. For her session, she was joined by Rwanda’s Minister for Gender and family promotion Dr Dianne Gashumba and Dr Usta Kaitesi, the principle of University of Rwanda’s college of arts, who also lectures at the RDF College.

Count on Africa

There was consensus that addressing security challenges on the African continent requires efforts by Africans and the experiences shared during the symposium should boost the ongoing efforts towards self-reliance as well overcome external interferences in African affairs as far as ensuring security is concerned.

Gen James Kabarebe, Rwanda’s Minister for Defense said that Africans should be the first to blame on their failures and interference saying that the continent has the resources and all it takes to handle its security issues.

Kabarebe hailed the participants for doing their best during the three days of intense deliberations, saying the discussions were vibrant and resourceful.

The Minister for Justice, Johnston Busingye who discussed foreign interference in Africa, stressed the need for self-reliance to resist external meddling saying having home grown solutions was the way to go.

"We need to have our home grown solutions, own governance, own rule of law,” Busingye said.

Major General Jean Bosco Kazura , the commandant of the RDF College that organized the symposium, said that the objectives of the symposium were achieved beyond expectations.

"We have achieved our objectives more than we expected, the discussions were very educative to help the student-officers perform future duties both at home and beyond,” Kazura said.

One of the participants and student at the RDF College, Major Paul Aruasa from Kenya defense Force’s air force said the symposium was significant as it equipped them with additional skills on how to deal with security threats.

"We have gained a lot from various sessions of the symposium and the experience we got from senior officials in various domains will be used to deal with security threats faced on our continent without waiting for external interference,” Aramosa said.

The symposium offers an opportunity to the course-students to engage in academic and practical real life security issues that affect the military profession.

The current student-officers at the RDF Command and Staff College are the fourth intake. There are currently 46 senior officers from eight countries including Burundi, Kenya, Malawi, South Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Rwanda.