Your Excellency Honorable Ms. Rebecca Kadaga, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for East African Affairs of the Republic of Uganda,

Your Excellency honorable Ms. Beatrice Eskul Moi, Minister of East African Community Affairs of the Republic of Kenya

Your Excellency Mr. Andrea Aguer Arrik, Deputy Secretary General of the East African Community;

Your Excellences Honorable Ministers,

Your Excellences Honorable Members of Parliaments

Your Excellences Governors of Turkana and Eastern Equatoria State

Your Excellency District Chairperson of Moroto,

Excellences Head of Delegations,

Ladies and Gentlemen, all protocol preserved;

Good afternoon,

Let me start by conveying to you the warm greetings from Dr. Alhadji Sarjoh Bah, the Director of the Conflict Management Directorate of the Political Affairs, Peace and Security Department of the African Union Commission.

All too soon, our High-Level Meeting of Ateker Leaders and Border Communities’ Sensitization on peaceful co-existence has come to an end after a very resounding start with the powerful opening statements, especially the inspirational keynote address by H.E Honorable First Deputy Prime Minister and  Minister for East African Affairs of the Republic of Uganda.

It is therefore with a humble sense of satisfaction that I address this august assembly, this afternoon, to express on behalf of Dr. Alhadji Sarjoh Bah, Director of the Conflict Management Directorate, and in my humble name, our profound gratitude to the Government and People of the Republics of Uganda, Kenya, and South Sudan for making available excellent facilities, and privileges laid out to make our meeting a success.

We would like to particularly appreciate H.E. Mr. Andrea Aguer Arrik, Deputy Secretary General of the East African Community, for setting the pace for what is clearly open and constructive deliberations on the subject under consideration.

It is against this background that the way was paved for this highly rich array of participants and experts from the different key stakeholder entities in the East Africa region, especially the Ateker leaders and border communities, to engage in a very encouraging and promising exchange of ideas on the focus of our strategic meeting. I can comfortably state that our meeting’s expectations have been largely met. In that, our moderators and speakers also deserve special commendation in leading the way.

The ball is now in the court of the East African Communities Member States concerned, notably Kenya, South Sudan, and Uganda competent decision-making bodies to implement the key outcomes of this meeting.

If we have met in Moroto, it is mainly because of we wanted to sensitize the Ateker leaders and border communities on peaceful co-existence. We are indebted to the participants for having adopted Peace caravan resolutions, adopted the Implementation Framework for the Peace Caravan Resolutions, approved the Peace Caravan Documentary and Report, as well as the Border communities’ sensitization programme.

It should be recalled that recall that the present High-Level meeting is part of the implementation of the African Union Convention on Cross-Border Cooperation, called also the Niamey Convention, adopted on 27 June 2014, in Malabo, Equatorial Guinea Republic, by the Assembly of Heads of State and Government of the African Union. The Niamey Convention is also the cornerstone of the African Union Border Progamme, established in 2007, as part of African Union's efforts to strengthen the structural conflict prevention capacities of its Member States.

To date, the Niamey Convention has so far received eleven (11) ratifications and eighteen (18) signatories, while it requires ratification from Fifteen (15) Member States to enter into force. In the whole East African community, only Kenya has ratified the Niamey convention.

The African Union seizes this opportunity to commend Kenya and other countries that have already signed and/or ratified the Niamey Convention, and to call on those that have not yet done so to expedite the signature and/or ratification of this important African Union legal instrument. The African Union expresses its willingness to see the next four ratifications coming from the Member States of the East African Community so that the Niamey Convention enters into force effectively.

It is in this context that the African Union also calls on the respective Government of the Republics of South Sudan and Uganda to follow the good example of Kenya and consider ratifying the Niamey Convention in the near future.

According to the Niamey Convention, “cross-border cooperation means any act or policy aimed at promoting and strengthening good-neighbourly relations between border populations, territorial communities and administrations or other stakeholders within the jurisdiction of two or more states, including the conclusion of agreements and arrangements useful for this purpose.

The Niamey Convention was adopted with the aim of putting in pace systems that will ensure that border are not considered as barriers, but are bridges to promote efforts to integrate the continent, strengthen its unity and promote peace, security and stability.

Excellences, Distinguished Participants,

As you must have noticed during the past two days brainstorming exercise, the challenge of borders in Africa is deep and complex, but not insurmountable. The High-Level meeting has identified several triggers of the phenomenon to include challenges around adequate resources to carry out the work, political will, and support from national governments to equip the local and county governments with the resources and mandate to effect the work, lack of social services such as health facilities, water resources, schools, just to mention a few of them.

The session on testimonies, reflections had one central theme, the importance of peace. All the activities that led to this meeting have already made a difference in the border communities and therefore require for the work to continue so that long lasting impacts are sustained in the communities

More importantly, we made valuable recommendations on the way forward, which highlighted key recommendations to our Leaders. Participants among others stressed the need for ownership by border communities of border delimitation and demarcation issues,  and to ensure their awareness of the sensitization activities; need for the African Union and the East African Community to work together with the concerned Member States on the border governance issues; need for the cross-border and other communities living along the border between the three countries to cooperate on the issue of peace caravans and to involve all of them in this activity; need for capacity building of cross-border communities and for support from the AU, EAC and partners in this activity; need for a trauma healing of cross-border communities programme and an appropriate school curriculum for children; need for exercising a simultaneous and uniformly disarmament of cross-border communities in the region, including a mentally disarmament of people, as part of the implementation of the African Union Silencing the Guns Programme by the Year 2030; need for establishing  formal cross-border points, if not  cross border customs authorities to stamp travel documents; need for identifying and implementing alternative programs and projects to assist cross-border communities, and of involving all stakeholders, including religious confessions in establishing border infrastructures, notably access roads, social facilities, communication and media networks and agencies, hazard compliance mechanisms to enable the Ateker cross-border communities add value to livestock and access to markets, etc.; need for the respective Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Republics of South Sudan and Uganda to facilitate an urgent ratification of the African Union Convention on Cross-Border Cooperation – the Niamey Convention; need for establishing an Ateker Leader Council to promote a peaceful resolution of conflict and disputes, etc.

We also made commitments for our own respective roles. All hands must therefore be on deck to promote implementation of the outcomes of this High-Level Meeting.

It would be remiss of me to conclude without acknowledging the critical roles played by the following stakeholders for the smoothness and success of our meeting: the Government of the Republic of Uganda (applause), the African Union Commission (applause), the East African Community, the GIZ (applause), the District of Moroto (applause), the technical staff (applause), the security staff (applause), the Ateker Leaders and Border Communities and all participants (applause), Strikers Hotel Moroto (applause).

Finally, please indulge me to recognize the hard work and team work of the East African Community’s, the African Union’s and GIZ’s staff.

Our work has only just begun. We look forward to continuing to engage, network and act. I pray the Almighty God for safe trip back to your respective destinations.

I thank you for your attention.

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