On November 16, 2021, at the invitation of the Cairo International Center for Conflict Resolution, Peacekeeping and Peacebuilding (CCCPA), ECFA Director, Ambassador Dr. Ezzat Saad, participated in the opening session of a training course organized by the Center from November 16 to 18, on the challenges of security and development in the Red Sea region.

The course was inaugurated by Ambassador Hamdi Sanad Loza, Deputy Foreign Minister for African Affairs, Major-General Tarek Adly Abdalla Ali, Assistant to the Egyptian Army Chief of Staff for Naval Forces, and Ambassador Ahmed Abdel Latif, the CCCPA Director, along with a number of representatives of Aswan Forum partners, and recorded speeches by Dr. Ghada Waly, Executive Director of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, and representatives of some of the CCCPA’s donors (the embassies of Japan and Sweden, the United Nations Development Program and the African Development Bank).

Ambassador Hamdi Loza’s speech addressed the deep-rooted historical relations binding the Arab and African countries bordering the Red Sea, and the importance of swiftly activating the activity of the Council of the Arab and African States bordering the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. He also stressed Egypt’s pivotal role in securing the navigational course of the Suez Canal and ensuring freedom of navigation in the Red Sea in coordination with the riparian states.

The training course – which focuses on analysis skills of conflicts, their causes and ways to resolve them – took place within the framework of implementing the recommendations of the Aswan Forum for Sustainable Peace and Development, as it witnessed discussions on the prospects for cooperation and development priorities in the Red Sea in its first and second editions. The course also comes as a continuation of the CCCPA’s activities aimed at building Arab and African capacities in the fields of peace and security.

Twenty trainees from the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and Defense of a number of Arab and African countries bordering the Red Sea participated in the training course, including: Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti, Saudi Arabia, Yemen and Jordan, in addition to Egypt.

The course sought to raise awareness of the current security challenges in the Red Sea region in light of the repercussions of the Coronavirus pandemic, as well as discussing the available opportunities to achieve sustainable development for the countries of the region.