Nandi-Ndaitwah urges tougher counterterrorism measures amid regional insurgencies

President Netumbo Nandi-Ndaitwah has called for a more stringent counterterrorism mechanism to ensure Namibia remains a force to recon with amid recent neighbouring countries’ insurgency activities. She was speaking at the first live Namibian Defence Force (NDF) counterterrorism exercise at the Etiro training base at Karibib on Wednesday. “As you are aware, geopolitical risks were recently witnessed in two of our sister countries in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, namely the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique, where acts of terrorism and insurgency activities continue to destabilise and undermine peace and security in those countries. “They should serve as a stark reminder of Namibia’s vulnerability to potential danger posed by terrorism and violent extremism. We can,therefore, not afford to be complacent and assume that the threat of terrorism is far from our national borders,” she said. The exercise, code-named ‘//Khau //Ae’, is derived from the Damara-Nama language, meaning ‘shield together’, she said. The president said the evolving nature and complexity of the threat of terrorism requires integrated planning, information sharing, cross-cutting stakeholder involvement, and the mobilisation of resources at national, regional, and international level. “This is what is required, and what we must do as a nation to shield our motherland from the scourge of terrorism, violent extremism, money laundering and transnational organised crime,” she said. The purpose of the government is to allocate and spend resources on this exercise to harness, strengthen, capacitate and build counterterrorism preparedness and resilience in the country, Nandi-Ndaitwah said. She called on the Ministry of Defence and Veterans Affairs to ensure that ounterterrorism operations and preparedness remain part of the NDF’s training curriculum.