25-6-2025
Nigeria will host the first African Chief of Defence Staff Summit August 25-27 in Abuja, the Defence Headquarters has announced.
The chairman of the summit planning committee, Air Vice Marshal Precious Amadi, made this known at a news conference on Wednesday in Abuja.
AVM Amadi said that all the countries invited, including Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali, had indicated interest to attend the summit.
He clarified that the strained political relationship between the trio and members of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), did not affect the cooperation between the countries’ militaries.
“We don’t get involved in political issues, but I can tell you with all confidence that under the International Joint Task Force, Niger Republic is still participating, even though we have a strained political relationship with them.
“So, Mali, Niger Republic, Burkina Faso, one of the issues with them, militarily, is that, threat to one is threat to all.
“So on the military side, we are working together. We have written to them, informing them about the summit, and the responses we have gotten from most of the countries is that they have indicated their interests to attend in person, not just sending their representatives,” he said.
The committee chair said the summit, with the theme: “Combating Contemporary Threats to Regional Peace and Security in Africa: The Role of Strategic Defence Collaborations,” would cover four thematic areas.
These areas, according to him, are: Initiating discussions on collective strategies for African security issues; Facilitating collaborative response to peace and security issues in Africa; developing mechanisms for integrating the private sector into Africa’s defence efforts; and establishing a roundtable for the initiation of homegrown solutions to Africa’s defence needs. NAN