Uganda hosts EASF civilian roster recruitment exercise

Over 200 civilians are undergoing a verification exercise by the Eastern African Standby Force (EASF) to have them rostered on the African Union (AU) list for future missions.

The event taking place at the Silver Springs Hotel in Kampala aims and matching the profiles of the successful candidates and their academic qualifications.

These, according to the Civilian National Focal Point (CNFP) at EASF, Elias Mparara, have been going through training in various fields including; disaster management, humanitarian response, conflict resolution,  national building, rule of law, human rights, political affairs and election observers among others.

EASF is comprised of Somalia, Comoros, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda.

Mparara who is also serving as the principal human resource officer in the ministry of defence and veteran affairs said those put on the AU roster will easily be picked for deployment depending on the needed fields for deployment.

He said over 100 Ugandans have been trained and about 40 already put on the roster for deployment when there is need.

Mparara said civilians always take the lead in missions globally. "Others hold substantive positions like advisors to heads of missions in different areas like the rule of law, human rights and in gender advocacy among others," he added.

Minister Charles Okello Engola receiving an award from EASF's Steve Lalande during the exercise at Silver Springs Hotel. Photo by Godiver Asege

The state minister for defence and veteran affairs, Col. Charles Okello Engola said with civilians on board in the peacekeeping missions, it can easily help address various security challenges in the regions and African at large.

He noted that achieving the vision of a prosperous and peaceful African requires that regional security blocs on the continent develop and provide a multinational and multidimensional capability consisting of civilian, military, police and any other necessary peace support operations components.

He said this is all aimed at having the right experts and trained human resources that can contribute to our goal of preventing and acting against violent conflict.

"We are doing this to continue positioning ourselves in state of preparedness and with adequate capacity and capability to the security changes of our times," he added.

Engola said EASF component provides planning, training and deploying civilians to advance peace and security in the region and the continent.

Steve Lalande, the head of civilian EASF, said the civilian component comprises of various key functions and interventions.

"It goes deeper than addressing the violence related to the conflict. We try to see a sustainable solution to a problem," he added.