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Defence pact signed

    JOHANNESBURG

    South Africa and Botswana on Friday signed a defence pact under which a permanent ministerial commission will be set up, a government official told IRIN on Monday.

    Sam Mkhwanazi, the spokesman for South Africa’s defence ministry, said the commission would meet regularly to consider matters of mutual defence between the two countries. “The agreement creates a legal instrument to strengthen military co-operation between the two countries,” said Mkhwanazi.

    South Africa and Botswana defence forces intervened in Lesotho in 1998 on behalf of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) to help quell unrest there following the dispute over the results of general elections won by the Lesotho Congress of Democrats (LCD).

    This article was produced by IRIN News while it was part of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs. Please send queries on copyright or liability to the UN. For more information: https://shop.un.org/rights-permissions

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