Highlights:
More than 5400 troops from several African countries will from Monday October 19th to November 7th undertake African Union field training exercise dubbed Amani Africa II.
The training will be conducted at the South Africa Army Combat Training Centre in Northern Cape in South Africa.
Analysis:
Countries from different regions in Africa have contributed more than 5400 troops to participate in African Union field training exercise dubbed Amani Africa II that translates to ‘Peace in Africa’ in Kiswahili.
The exercise will run between October 19th and November 7th at the South Africa Army Combat Training Centre in Northern Cape expected to be in two phases.
The first similar continental Exercise; Amani Africa I was conducted in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in October 2010.
The first phase will involve training drills on ‘Rapid Intervention Scenario’ that is best suited for cases of genocide or other major violations that will prompt the ASF intervention after 14 days.
The second phase of Amani Africa II will involve the participants exercising on the deployment of a peacekeeping force.
Amani Africa II has the sole purpose of evaluating the preparedness of the African Standby Force (ASF) and its Rapid Deployment Capability (RDC) towards the achievement of full operational capability by December 2015.
The training and set-up of the African Standby Forces began in 2012 and the final cycle will see the actualization of the ASF by December 2015.
Summary:
Five African regions: Southern African Development Community (SADC) will contribute the main force while Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), East Africa Standby Force (ASF) and Economic Community of Central African Stated (ECCAS) will contribute troops and equipment for the Amani Africa II.
Troops contributing countries include; Angola, Algeria, Burundi, Botswana, DRC, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Swaziland, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
The ASF is a very crucial force that will help African countries adequately deal with any major crises in the contributing states and at the same time equip a well co-ordinated force that will work efficiently an flawlessly attributed to subscribing to similar training drills.
