Is Botswana vulnerable to an NBC attack?

Richard Moleofe | Friday February 5, 2016 14:24

The soldiers are followed by a trail of white cloud which is directed at killing this notorious insect. The country has mobilised a little over 220,000 troops.Certainly, soldiers are not immune to the ravages of the Zika virus and this is why they are part of the exercise to eradicate mosquitoes. This is how soldiers can become useful in times of national emergencies.

The Zika virus does not only threaten lives, it is also a threat to national economies and particularly that of Brazil. The entire Olympic project is under threat and the political leadership is already trembling at the thought of a postponement.

Of course, China would be more than happy to host the event a second time.

NBC stands for Nuclear, Biological and Chemical, and for any country this is an undesirable warfare.

At this point, we have to answer the question of whether this country is vulnerable and if so, to what extent? 

Botswana is a signatory to the nuclear non-poliferation treaty and in this regard the country has never entertained the thought of developing nuclear for purposes of power generation or weapons systems.

However, this country is rich in uranium deposits which are a mineral element for the

production of nuclear.

I would like to argue that Botswana is very much vulnerable to an NBC attack particularly when you take into account the current world security.

Botswana has always been a member of the world community that fights terrorism even though there is a lot that this country can still do to advance those efforts.

Every country in the whole wide world is vulnerable to an NBC attack but the threat levels differ  Until the arrival of ISIS on the world stage, Botswana’s ratings in terms of her vulnerability were very low. Now this network of terror is clearly hell bent to harm everyone who is not in agreement with them.

ISIS has become a new symbol of terror and they have the capacity to reach any part of the world including Botswana. The current epidemic that is ravaging Botswana Defence Force (BDF) camps is a clear wake-up call for commanders to think of introducing some elements of NBC training into the current military curricular.

We still cannot completely discount the fact that the disease might have occurred as a result of a biological attack on the two training facilities of Pandamatenga and Paje. Until BDF comes up with a scientifically proven counter theory, I shall stick to my current hypothesis which is a scientific intelligent guess.

Several BDF officers have received training on NBC in the early 80s and 90s in the United States of America.

 NBC training is a part of the US military training curricular and there is no two ways about it. Our troops will also need some form of training in that regard.

The Americans will be more than willing to train BDF if approached.

When some of us were trained in NBC in the US, we never took those measures seriously because such threat was not eminent. The current state of international terrorism calls for all African militaries to rethink their training strategies.Out of the seven most notorious terror organisations, two of them are based in Africa and those are; Al Shabab and Boko Haram.

Terror organisations do not fight according to any rules of engagement. Their modus operandi is to instil terror in the population and nothing else. 

They will use any kind of weapon within their reach and that includes NBCs and particularly ISIS which is more hi-tech than other groups. It is only a matter of time before ISIS lays its hands on one of the three weapons. God forbid!

There are two treaties that forbid or at least restrict the use of such weapons and their research. The first one was in 1925 and later followed by the 1972 treaty.

However, countries have found ways of circumventing such restrictions and forged ahead with the development of NBC weapons and their modes of delivery. Terror groups do not abide by treaties and rules of engagement.

Botswana has a high capacity to develop biological weapons when taking into account the complexity of our vaccine industry. This country has a hi-tech capacity to develop foot and mouth disease vaccines and has successfully done so since 1976. It is this knowledge that can be used to develop other forms of pathogens that can be used in warfare. This calls for government to strengthen bio-security elements at the FMD laboratories and the National Veterinary Laboratories. The development and advances made in the area of microbiology made by Louis Pasteur and Robert Koch have opened a totally new avenue into biological sciences and that has made the design and production of biological pathogens much easier. Some of these dangerous micro biological elements can even be achieved in the laboratories of the University of Botswana.Let me highlight that other forms of NBC elements have always existed in almost every country including Botswana and these are mostly used against individuals.

 Chemical weapons have become a weapon of choice for intelligence organs including our own. Ricin, which is a chemical component with untraceable properties, is the most popular with intelligence operatives. Recently, a British report was published on the assassination of a widely known critic of the Putin government. He was poisoned with plutonium which is a nuclear derivative. In the same way, troublesome political elements in our country could be eliminated in like manner.