Senior security officials from Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Seychelles have convened a consultative conference in Ethiopia's Addis Ababa to encourage the Horn to step up cooperation to prevent and control the threats of terrorism and cross-border crime, local media has said.
Enhanced engagement is a necessity given that the East African region is convenient for terrorists, who still pose a major security threat, Ethiopia’s National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) Deputy Director General Tazeir Gebre-Egziabher noted.
These groups, as he pointed out, have made "relentless efforts" to support each other financially, in terms of personnel, training and facilities in order to expand their "destructive conspiracy."
On Tuesday, NISS reported that more than 3,000 people in Ethiopia have been arrested suspected of links to terrorist groups, money laundering, corruption and other illegal operations.
The East African nation also succeeded in foiling several terrorist plots directed against its citizens and arrested 165 al-Shabaab and 121 Daesh terrorists, the national security service added.
Last week, Kenya's northeastern Lamu county witnessed large-scale attacks by al-Shabaab militants using improvised explosive devices.
On August 1, the terrorist group carried out an ambush in the Mwembeni area in Lamu county, killing two people and injuring ten others. Commenting on the attack a day later, Kenya's Interior Secretary Kithure Kindiki said that all the terrorists involved in the Lamu attack were neutralized by security officers.
* al-Shabaab and Daesh (ISIL/ ISIS/ IS) are terrorist groups banned in Russia and many other countries