Ethiopian Informer
ADDIS ABABA: June 21 (Ethiopian Informer) — The Intergovernmental Authority on Development’s (IGAD) has urged its member countries to deepen their criminal intelligence analysis capabilities in a bid to effectively counter organized crime and transnational security threats.
The urgent call was made by IGAD’s Director of Security Sector Program, Abebe Muluneh, during the ongoing four-day regional meeting, being held from June 19 to 22 under the theme “Criminal Intelligence Analysis,” the East African bloc said in statement on Thursday.
The East African bloc, which recently conducted needs assessment of its member countries’ law enforcement agencies, described criminal intelligence analysis capability as a “critical gap” among its member countries.
“IGAD’s needs assessment of law enforcement agencies has revealed that criminal intelligence analysis capability is a critical gap and considered by the majority of member states to take higher priority in regional training session,” an IGAD statement quoted Muluneh as saying on Thursday.
Noting the critical gap in criminal intelligence analysis across the region, the director also emphasized the need to put in place an “advanced capacity building” that could potentially enable its member countries effectively counter organized crime and transnational security threats in the region.
The eight-member regional bloc further urged its member countries to strengthen their capabilities in criminal intelligence analysis and methodology, which it emphasized “necessary in our globalized and ever networking world to prevent and fight all serious and organized crime in particular, and transnational security threats in general.”
IGAD also described criminal intelligence as an “essential instrument in preventing and countering transnational security threats like organized crime.”
IGAD, noting its aspirations to bridge the gaps in addressing transnational security threats, also revealed its special emphasis towards deepening its member states’ potential in countering such regional threats, which often witnessed in the form of cross-border terrorism.
According to IGAD, its capacity building initiative mainly aimed to “equip trainees with an advanced knowledge of criminal intelligence concepts, processes and skills of implementing and applying analytical tools and techniques to strengthen the capacity of member states’ law enforcement agencies to enable them effectively collect, collate, evaluate, analyze, use and disseminate criminal intelligence information.”
