CDS urges regional, international efforts to address security challenges in Africa

The Chief of Defence Staff (CDS), Gen. Lucky Irabor has called for regional and international collaboration to address the challenges of ungoverned spaces in Africa.

Irabor made the call on Wednesday in Abuja at the opening of a two-day international conference on `Africa’s Ungoverned Spaces and Regional Security: Building Resilience in Democratic Institutions’.

The CDS was represented by AVM Charles Ohwo, Chief of Policy and Plans, Nigerian Air Force.

The conference was organised by the National Defence College.

He said many scholars had adopted the term, “ungoverned Spaces” to refer to areas where land and maritime domains had little or no governance presence.

He said African countries had struggled to attain appreciable level of economic development since independence, due partly to myriads of security challenges.

According to him, the security challenges persisted because criminals have places to hibernate and operate from.

“If you move away from Nigeria to Sahel region, for instance, large terrorists exist where constitutional authorities cannot control and dominate,

“Consequently, non state actors are predominant in these areas, an indication that there are spaces to occupy with little or no resistance from constitutional authorities.

“These criminal entities that operate within and across borders require national, regional and international approaches to curtail their excesses,” Irabor said.

In his remark, the Commandant, National War College, Rear Adm. Murtala Bashir said the conference, targeted at addressing ungoverned spaces in Africa, was apt.

He said that ungoverned spaces have negative effects on regional and global security, making it easy for undocumented migrants to cross between countries.