TANZANIA and Mozambique police forces
have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) that will see the two sides
cooperating in curbing terrorism, drugs trafficking and other cross-border
crimes in East Africa and neighbouring countries. The Inspectors General of Police (IGP) from
Tanzania and Mozambique, Simon Sirro and Bernardino Rafael, signed the document
yesterday at the Ministry of Home Affairs offices in Dar es Salaam, which
provides for an exchange of intelligence information to safeguard the interest
of both parties. Before putting ink on paper, IGP Sirro revealed to reporters
that, after operations carried out by the Tanzania Police Force in Ikwiriri,
Kibiti (Coast Region) and some parts of Mtwara Region prompted by
indiscriminate killings, some perpetrators had crossed over to neigbouring
Mozambique. “If they crossed the border to our neighbours, it doesn’t mean we
are safe, we have to work with our counterparts from Mozambique to deal with
these criminals,” IGP Sirro emphasized. He noted that there was a report to the
effect that four people allegedly linked to the violence in Coast Region and
crossed the border, had been killed in Mozambique, saying since East Africa and
neighbouring countries were committed on fighting all forms of crime, it was
difficult for the perpetrators to hide in any of those countries without being
arrested.
“If you hide in Rwanda, Congo, Burundi and Mozambique, you are not
safe we are working together and we share intelligence information. Africa is
one and we are cooperating with our colleagues in the rest of East Africa and
Africa simply because we want people to live peacefully,” IGP Sirro said. His
Mozambican counterpart IGP Bernardino Rafael, thanked the Tanzanian government
and its people after signing the MoU which aims at enabling the two sides to
fight cross-border crimes, terrorism and extremism that endangered the lives of
the people. “We want to fight crimes in collaboration with Tanzania; we have to
keep our borders safe,” IGP Rafael said, adding that the agreements would
enable both countries to translate the idea into reality. Apart from that, IGP
Rafael said that the Mozambican Police Force would want to get experience from
their Tanzanian counterparts in protecting natural resources. “Our Police Force
was trained here (Tanzania) and we want to become strong, if we become strong,
the Tanzanian side would be strong too,” the IGP added. In the area of
security, the East African Community (EAC) is to foster and maintain a
favourable atmosphere that was a pre-requisite to social and economic
development through co-operation and consultations on issues pertaining to
peace and security of the partner states.
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