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Zambia, Angola Agree to Improve Common Border Security
Zambia and Angola Saturday agreed to intensify cooperation to improve deteriorating security situation along their common border.
According to a communiqu¨¦ issued at the end of the four-day session of the Zambia-Angola Joint Permanent Commission on Defense and Security, the commission reviewed and deliberated on the general security situation in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region and particularly the security situation along the common border between the two countries.
The commission expressed concern over the deteriorating security situation along the border and appointed a technical committee comprising officials from both countries to investigate the incidents and report back to the commission.
The two sides also agreed to establish permanent communication links between the regional commanders and other security chiefs in the border provinces of Mexico and Cuando-Cubango of Angola and Zambian border provinces of Northwestern and Western.
Such communication links will be complemented by intensified border patrols, said the communiqu¨¦.
On Angola, the commission applauded the gains so far made by the government in the offensive against the rebel National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) led by Jonas Savimbi and expressed the hope that the protracted conflict in Angola will end soon.
The commission hailed the end of the fighting between Rwandan and Ugandan troops in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) city of Kisangani and subsequent withdrawal of these troops from that area.
In this regard, the commission called on the United Nations to hasten the deployment of the full compliment of military observers and peacekeepers in the war-torn country.
On Zimbabwe, the two sides welcomed the recent peaceful conduct of the parliamentary elections and expressed solidarity with the Zimbabwean government in its initiatives aimed at equitably distributing land among its citizenry.
Zambian Defence Minister Chitalu Sampa and Home Affairs Minister Peter Machungwa as well as their deputy ministers attended the meeting. Angola Interior Minister Fernando Dos Santos and Deputy Defence Minister Armando Neto also attended the meeting.
In March this year Zambia deployed more troops in its Northwestern Province bordering Angola to check the area which had been attacked persistently by armed personnel suspected to be Angolan rebels. Angola once repeatedly accused Zambia of allowing its territory to be used to transport military and logistical supplies to UNITA but the latter denied the accusation.
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