Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵ Office of Counter-Terrorism (Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵOCT) and the African Union Counter-Terrorism Center (AUCTC) conducted a Regional Expert Meeting with Eastern African countries to discuss ways to safeguard critical energy infrastructure from the evolving terrorism threat.
The event took place on 28-29 January in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) and gathered over 50 representatives from Burundi, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, and Uganda working for counter-terrorism agencies, energy ministries, and energy sector companies. Serving as a peer learning platform to disseminate and gather good practices, tools, and lessons learned from Eastern African Member States, the event explored avenues for enhanced networking and joint action between Member States, the African Union, and the United Nations.
The opening of the meeting featured remarks by Mr. Alexander Zouev, Acting Under-Secretary-General of Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵOCT; Mr. Lakhdar Idriss Mounir Lallali, Acting Director of AUCTC; Mr. Shimels Yalew, Deputy Director of the Counter-Terrrorism Department, National Intelligence and Information Service, Ethiopia; and H.E. Mr. Evgeniy E. Terekhin, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Russian Federation to Ethiopia and Plenipotentiary Representative of the Russian Federation to the African Union.
Discussions focused on the escalating terrorist threat to the energy infrastructure in the region. While major oil, gas, and power advancing projects offer significant economic opportunities, they also increasingly exposed to terrorist threats. Experts warned that attacks on these critical assets, including remote or under-protected facilities, could disrupt implementation and operations, causing severe regional repercussions. They also raised concerns about the vulnerability of interconnected systems, such as regional power pools describing how an attack could trigger cascading failures, leading to widespread blackouts, affecting millions of people, and disrupting public services.
International experts from the Russian Ministry of Energy, the Kuwait Oil Company, as well as the former Director from the India Maritime Security Foundation contributed global perspectives. They advocated for a comprehensive, risk-based security approach, robust risk assessments, enhanced safety procedures, contingency planning, and strong inter-agency cooperation and information sharing.
The Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵOCT Technical Guide on Protecting Critical Energy Infrastructure against Terrorist Attacks, developed through a series of international workshops, served as the foundation for the discussions, which incorporated good practices, tools, and case studies from the publication. Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵOCT also conducted a tabletop exercise on cross-border threats to oil and gas infrastructure. The simulation aimed to deepen the participants' understanding of the complex, cascading impact of a potential attack and the need to strengthen cross-border and inter-agency coordination, particularly through information-sharing and joint operational planning.
This collaborative dialogue marked a critical step towards building a more resilient and secure energy network across Eastern Africa, safeguarding vital infrastructure essential for the region¡¯s stability and development.
The event was organized by Ä¢¹½ÊÓƵOCT as part of the United Nations Global Programme on Countering Terrorist Threats against Vulnerable Targets, under a dedicated Project on Protecting Critical Energy Infrastructure. It builds upon a series of regional engagements, including the meeting for Gulf Countries on ¡°Oil and Gas Infrastructure Protection and Crisis Management against Terrorist Threats,¡± held in Kuwait City in July 2025.
