Pretoria - African leaders on Tuesday moved a step closer to realising their goal of having a single influential continental force that will respond to conflict and crises in the continent.
This as President Jacob Zuma, joined by several of his counterparts from the African Union (AU), hosted a consultation summit in Pretoria on Tuesday night to discuss the mooted African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crises (ACIRC).
South Africa spearheaded deliberations at the last AU summit, held in Ethiopia in May, for the adoption of the ACIRC mechanism. At the time, the move to endorse the ACIRC was as a deliberate attempt to reduce the continent's reliance on outside forces and funds for its defence.
The need for a response mechanism like ACIRC was highlighted when violence erupted in Mali earlier this year and there was no clear intervention plan. Observers say such a force would have been deployed in Mali before the rebels there took over half the country and eventually pressing the French to come in.
The ACIRC is seen as precursor to the AU’s African Standby Force (ASF). Plans for the ASF have been in place for over a decade and the decision to finally operate that force has now been shelved until after 2014.
Tuesday’s summit at the Department of International Relations and Co-operation (DIRCO) headquarters was used to allow countries that have expressed a willingness to contribute to ACIRC an opportunity to discuss ways and means of making the mooted force a reality.
To date, South Africa, Uganda and Ethiopia have pledged troops to the interim force. To implement its operations, the ACIRC will have an integrated combat units of 1 500 troops with many specialist capabilities and will be ready to be deployed at short notice. The troops will be drawn from a pool of about 5 000.
At Tuesday’s meeting, chaired by Zuma, leaders were to look into issues of funding modalities and logistics to make the intervention force effective. A brief statement issued after the talks said the political leaders agreed to establish a working group made up of all chiefs of defence of volunteering countries. The heads of state would agree on guidelines to direct the working group in fulfilling its mandate.
The meeting was in line with a decision taken in July by the AU Peace and Security Council to table “practical modalities for the operationalization” of the ACIRC before the end of this year.
In his opening remarks, Zuma said the decision to establish the ACIRC came about “due to the realisation that independent and swift African responses to crises that arise on our continent could not wait while the building blocks of the African Standby Force are carefully being put in place”.
“While we fully support the realisation of a standby force, we believe that the time has come that African leaders must be able to act in the interim, swiftly decisively and when needed,” Zuma said.
“We realised then that we should have our own capabilities that would obviate the need to call on external partners to assist - Mali is still fresh in our minds.”
Africa needed to ensure that there was a will and commitment to put in place an African force that could respond to immediate calls for intervention.
Zuma further said he was “pleased” that Mali was rebuilding its institutions and governance structures despite the fact that the north of that country was still threatened by rebel forces.
“It is our firm belief that Africa can and has the capacity and means to act swiftly and decisively.”
AU Commissioner for Peace and Security, Smail Chergui, told the gathering that the continent was unable to respond appropriately to the crisis in Mali, something he said further strengthened the calls for an emergency force to be put in place immediately.
“We have also seen from the situation in Central African Republic that such a mechanism is needed, for the existence of ACIRC will make us respond more promptly. So this meeting is a huge milestone and the meeting was an appropriate forum to mobilise member states to support the initiative by pledging troops and financial resources.” – SAnews.gov.za
