Lohathla - The largest multi-country military exercise to be held in South Africa since democracy, will kick off today, at the Army Combat Training Centre (CTC) in the Northern Cape.
The military exercise, organised by the African Union (AU), is made up of over 5 400 representatives from various defence and police forces of the member states involved in the promotion and keeping of peace and security on the continent under the banner Amani Africa II.
The exercise intends to evaluate the state of readiness of the African Standby Force (ASF) and its Rapid Deployment Capability (RDC) towards the achievement of Full Operational Capability (FOC) by December 2015.
The training cycle started in 2012 and its conclusion this year will also see the long-awaited ASF become a reality.
When the ASF is finally operational, it will consist of standby arrangements within Africa’s five sub-regions. It will be composed of multi-dimensional capabilities, including military, police and civilian standby forces in their countries of origin and ready for rapid deployment.
The Amani Africa II Exercise is set to be conducted in two phases.
The participants in the first phase will have training drills on “rapid intervention scenarios" in genocide cases or other major violations that require the ASF to intervene within 14 days.
For the second phase of the exercise, the participants will exercise on the deployment of a peacekeeping force.
The public information officer of the exercise, Jaco Theunissen, told SAnews that the exercise is based on a scenario created in a fictitious country named the Republic of Carana.
The exercise setting provides for two scenarios.
"The first scenario referred to in the exercise as Scenario 6 is based on the report that the security situation in Carana has deteriorated into an extent that the AU deemed it necessary to deploy its Rapid Deployment Capability to address the situation."
Theunissen said this will then give the AU, acting on AU Scenario 6 and Chapter 7 of the United Nations Charter, the authority to intervene by deploying the Rapid Deployment Capability of its standby force.
"This will then provide the AU an opportunity to exercise its Rapid Deployment Capability."
The second scenario, Theunissen said, is referred to as Scenario 5.
It is based on the report that the security situation has changed and the situation is conducive for the deployment of a traditional and multi-dimensional peacekeeping force for Peace Support Operations.
"This will give the AU, acting on AU Scenario 5 and Chapter 6 of the United Nations Charter, an opportunity to evaluate the state of readiness of the African Standby Force to undertake a peacekeeping mission," said Theunissen.
The five regional communities participating in the exercise are North African Regional Capability (NARC), East African Community (EAC), Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS), Southern African Development Community (SADC) and the Economic Community of West Africa States (ECOWAS).
The major countries contributing troops to the exercise are Angola, Botswana, DRC Lesotho, Malawi Mozambique, Naminia, South Africa, Swaziland Zambia and Zimbabwe. Other contributing countries will be Algeria, Burundi, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya Nigeria, Rwanda and Uganda.
The troops started arriving in South Africa for Amani Africa II, a Kiswahili phrase meaning “peace in Africa”- last week. They will be in the country until November 7.
Amani Africa I - which was held in Addis Ababa, Ethophia - had evaluated the operational readiness of the ASF. - SAnews.gov.za
