UPDF ready to handle African crises - Mbadi

By Cecilia Okoth

UGANDAN soldiers have the capacity to handle crises within the African continent, Maj Gen Wilson Mbadi the Joint Chief of Staff of Uganda People's Defence Force (UPDF) has said.

In the first ever field exercise undertaken by the African Union at continental level; Mbadi said the Ugandan troops performed excellently, showcasing intervention and stability operations.

Soldiers from 22 African nations had exercises as part of the African Union's African Standby Force (ASF) at the South Africa National Defence Force's Lohatla training area.

The ASF successfully tested its Rapid Deployment Capability as a startup operation and its capacity to transition into a full multidimensional peace support operation.

The exercise further tested the ASF's level of readiness for Full Operational Capability (FOC) based on the African Union training doctrines and objectives. The training code named AMANI AFRICA II (Peace in Africa) lasted three weeks.

"At no one time have we had an exercise of this magnitude involving over 5000 troops in Africa from military, police and civilian components to check whether we are about to reach full operational capability for intervention and stability operations on our continent without having to wait for assistance from outside the continent," Mbadi said.

Mbadi alongside Brig Mathew Gureme the Chief of Staff Uganda Rapid Deployment Capability Centre and Lt Col Fred Twinamatsiko the Director Inland Training UPDF received the 108 UPDF soldiers who returned home aboard Angolan Air Force Ilyushin 76 at the Uganda Peoples Defence Air Forces in Entebbe on Thursday night. Twinamatsiko was deputy of the contingent command.

The soldiers had travelled together with 41 Rwanda troops who also participated in the exercise.

ASF is part of the African Peace and Security Architecture that divides Africa into Regional Economic Communities that are supposed to develop regional security forces and mechanisms to respond to crises and conflict in their specific regions. 

These are Eastern African Standby Force, North African Regional Capacity, Economic Community of West African States, Standby Force, Economic Community of Central African States Standby Force and South African Development Community Standby Brigade.

The troop contributing countries include Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe.  

Other contributing and/or participating countries involved in the exercise are Algeria, Burundi, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda.

"This training is an indication that we are looking for African solutions to African problems. I have no doubt in our soldiers. We did it in South Sudan and joined forces with others in restoring peace," Mbadi said adding that the exercise improves the ability of the African troops to work together and learn lessons from each other.

The first exercise (Amani Africa 1) was conducted in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia in October 2010.