African Union Inaugurates New HQ of Intelligence & Security Services

The recently concluded 33rd African Union (AU) Summit in Addis Ababa was marked by the formal inauguration of the new headquarters of the Committee of Intelligence and Security Services (CISSA) in the Ethiopian capital, with a pledge to intensify inter-African security cooperation.

The CISSA, set up sixteen years ago, is tasked with providing the African Union Commission (AUC) with timely and insightful intelligence, to help in making appropriate decisions, based on accurate information, and addressing the security challenges facing Africa, the continental bloc said.

The creation of CISSA was necessitated by the need to share information on security threats confronting Africa, which have become transnational in nature and therefore require borderless cooperation and collaboration among and between Intelligence and Security Services in Africa.

It is also a platform where member countries’ services exchange intelligence, expertise and experiences while dealing with common threats that affect the continent.

The new CISSA headquarters were funded entirely by Equatorial Guinea.