As Uganda hosts the Eastern Africa Standby Force 2013, Africa must guarantee her own security, writes Gen Aronda Nyakairima

By the end of this year, OAU/AU will be celebrating its Golden Jubilee whose theme is 50 years of Pan Africanism and Renaissance. Truly, Africa is proud to celebrate her fundamental achievements, with the Continent from Cape Town to Cairo and from Senegal to Mombasa being Independent and, therefore, reason for celebration when our leaders gather to mark the great strides.

Some of the solid achievements for reflection are the political Independence of many African countries and the defeat of Apartheid in South Africa.

There have been economic achievements as a result of renewed visions of some leaders, and it is with this, that Africa slowly but progressively awakens. We cannot afford to lose yet another century. While others can afford to walk, we must run.

With her newly found great economic wealth, with figures indicating a drop in poverty levels, this is yet another reason for celebration. Unfortunately, however, as Africa celebrates 50 yrs of its Independence, the continent is still treated as if it was an abandoned property, voiceless or at worst, negligible.

But surely, who can neglect and marginalise 1.2 billion people occupying a land mass of over 11.7 million sq km with some countries registering the fastest growing economies in the world? Africa has been acknowledged as the 21st Century Continent and, therefore, a force to reckon with. Who can treat her as an abandoned property?

Africa has mass arable land and young people who should be guided into a more productive population. One actually wonders why the world’s poorest person might be found in Africa! Is it because certain leaders lost direction? Can the many raging conflicts and long protracted wars make Africa rich? Certainly not! Can we guarantee our security?

It is important to note that Europe and America have NATO to guarantee their security; China is big and able to guarantee her security and so is India and Russia. Friends and colleagues, who is there to guarantee Africa’s Security? Africa must continuously arrive at African generated solutions, by African leaders.

Evolution of the Eastern Africa Standby Force

The July 2000 Constitutive Act of the African Union defined new principles in the field of Peace and Security. The AU decided on the establishment of the Peace and Security Council [PSC] as “a standing decision-making organ for the prevention, management and resolution of conflicts”.

The African Union also recognised the role of the regional economic communities/mechanisms in promoting peace and security in Africa.

In a bid to establish a Continental Standby Force, the AU adopted a roadmap for the implementation of African Standby Force [ASF]. As a result the Continent was divided into five major security zones based on the extant economic zones of ECOWAS to form ECOMOG; SADCC to form SADCBRIG; East African Community/IGADD to form East African Standby Brigade [EASBRIG], East and Central Africa Standby Brigade [ECCAS], MAGREB to form North Standby African Brigade [NASBRIG]. When the brigades adopted the multidimensional nature, they were then called “forces” for example, the East African Standby Force [EASF]. EASF is, therefore, a component of the ASF.

The ASF roadmap specified the creation of a rapid deployment capability [RDC] for employment/intervention to prevent genocide-like situation, as well as other natural calamities. RDC would be part of the multidimensional regional force that will deploy in advance, while the rest of the force may deploy as a follow-on force.

Since May 13, Uganda has been hosting the Eastern Africa Standby Forces Exercise that has drawn participants from 10 African countries of Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Sudan and the host country Uganda. The code name is “Mashariki Salam” meaning a “peaceful Eastern Africa”.

To have a sustainable Eastern Africa, we definitely need to have a security mechanism to guarantee our own security.

This exercise could not have come timely. African leaders have grumbled with the question – other countries have the answer to the guarantee of their future and security, who is our guarantor? Where is ‘Africa’s NATO’? I am confident that we can collectively answer this fundamental question.

That is why it was deemed important that we have regional economic communities/mechanisms namely SADC, ECOWAS, EASF, EAC and ECCAS upon which peace and security mechanism will be premised to form a solid foundation for Africa’s Stand by force.

I have no doubt in mind whatsoever that the exercise meets the fundamental objectives that were set.

These were:

For Regional, continental, and international co-operation.
International peace and security
Manifestation of the readiness and willingness to resolve the African crises through African response and initiative.
To have a multinational, multidimensional field exercise, which is, therefore, a great edification point for us all.
To bring us to the front the awareness of this arrangement and/or mechanism to the wider Eastern African society, thereby cementing our co-operation at multiple levels of our society.

It is necessary to note that the field training exercise 2013 (FTX 2013), Mashariki Salam, is building on the achievements of previous exercises. Upon completion, it should provide Eastern African member states with a robust security mechanism ready to be applied in any conflict prevention or resolution within the region and equally be ready to be part of an AU stand by force, completely with full operational capacity by 2015.

As the Eastern African Standby Force (EASF) field training exercise is underway, we must all reflect on the situation in Eastern Congo, Central Africa Republic, Nigeria and other African countries, where development has been delayed because of the various conflicts. We must be aware that well indeed, our strength lies in our unity.

Given the previous successful exercises conducted in Kenya, Djibouti and Sudan, I have no doubt that FTX 2013 will test our readiness to deploy anywhere in the region or across the continent.

Despite the challenges that the EASF is faced with, such as insufficient resources, donor dependency and differences in member states doctrines, FTX 2013 will be able to test the EASF/COM capability in planning, force generation, deployment, sustainment and recovery of a complex multi dimensional peace support operation.

The success of this exercise would certainly mark the operational readiness of the EASF to conduct a multi-dimensional peace support operation and will thus inform the full operational capability of the regional force. Gladly, the UPDF has useful lessons to offer, drawn from experience.

The writer is the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF)

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