Anti-terror deal for Africa
2004-08-04 20:34
Nairobi - African intelligence chiefs have agreed in Kenya to share information in an effort to combat the threat of terrorism in their region, an official statement said Wednesday.
The officers "have stepped up counter-terrorism efforts by agreeing to share and exchange intelligence information", according to the statement released after they met Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki in Nairobi.
The officers in charge of fighting terrorism in eastern, central and southern Africa countries have been meeting in central Kenya, near Mount Kenya, to manoeuvre strategies of warding off terrorism.
The conference, which opened on Monday, is due to close on Friday.
Extremists have hit the region twice. First in 1998 when car bombs almost simultaneously blew up US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, killing 224 people.
Again in November 2002 an all-terrain vehicle packed with explosives rammed in Israeli-owned Paradise hotel in the Kenyan port city of Mombassa, claiming 18 lives.
Moments earlier, surface-to-air missiles narrowly missed hitting a departing Israeli jet full of tourists. - Sapa-AFP
- SAPA