Sao Tome, 18 Feb 2025 (Lusa) - The authorities in Sao Tome and Principe plan to strengthen measures to ensure compliance with compulsory military service, with the aim of raising patriotic awareness and promoting national values, the archipelago's Supreme Council for National Defence announced on Tuesday.
"The Constitution very clearly states that military service is compulsory for all nationals and there has been a decline in this regard," said the spokesman for the Supreme Council for National Defence, Marçal Lima, at the end of the first ordinary meeting of the body, which was chaired by Sao Tome's president, Carlos Vila Nova.
According to Lima, the authorities concluded that there is a need to increase the "sense of serving the nation, of all citizens seeing themselves in their homeland and cultivating the patriotic sense, national values of patriotic feeling.
"These values are falling, we need to work on raising them so that the people of Sao Tome feel more like Sao Tomeans and defend what is theirs," the council spokesman said.
To this end, he added, the authorities will work to ensure that young people feel more motivated, through the military's mission of "public service to support communities" - namely through community actions and social support.
Every year, hundreds of young people enlist in the Armed Forces of Sao Tome and Príncipe (FASTP) for military service, but the number has been on a downward trend in recent years.
Lima said that during the meeting, the defence and national security situation was also analysed, and he assured that "there is nothing" to indicate any strange movements that could jeopardise national defence and security.
"Because our country is calm, serene and peaceful, prevention plays a fundamental role," he said. "We need to work hard on prevention so that, in good time, we can visualise any actions that could jeopardise this stability. As such, we are working to improve the competent services so that we can maintain the climate that we have fortunately seen."
At its meeting on Tuesday, the Supreme Council for National Defence approved the dismissal of the inspector general of the Armed Forces, José Maria Menezes, and also approved the appointment of the president's top military aide, whose name was not revealed.
JYAF/ARO // ARO.
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