Pretoria - It is a moment of pride for the African continent as the newly established multi-dimensional African Standby Force (ASF) and its Rapid Deployment Capability for sustainable peace will start operating next year.
Consisting of brigades from the five continental blocs -- Economic Community of West Africa States, East African Community, North African Regional Capability and Southern African Development Community -- the 25 000-strong multinational force will help with immediate and effective responses to crises arising in Africa. Its logistics headquarters will be located in the Cameroon city of Douala.
The establishment of the ASF is seen as a step towards curbing reliance on foreign powers, whose forces are deployed in Africa’s conflict zones, which often causes tensions as African leaders seek African solutions for African problems.
The establishment of the force was first proposed in 1997 but due to funding issues, among others, its inception was delayed but now it is finally seeing light.
The ASF and RDC will be deployed to troubled countries in the continent. The forces will be dispatched on request by member states and on approval of the African Union to restore peace and security.
Parts of their mission will also include monitoring, observation, peace making and peace building support in post-conflict disarmament, demobilisation and humanitarian assistance, especially for women and children, who often suffer the most in conflict situations.
The readiness of the force was given the stamp of approval on Sunday at the end of the three-week-long Amani Africa II field training exercise at the Army Combat Training Centre in the sparsely populated Karoo part of the Northern Cape.
Over 5 400 troops, police officers and civilians from Africa’s five regions participated in the training.
Zimbabwean Defence Minister Sydney Sekeramayisa told SAnews that the exercise was aimed at building African capability to react to and solve African problems.
“This exercise has been successfully done. Like any training of its nature, there are a lot of lessons learned that will form the basis for improving on future exercises.
“What is important is that the process is now firm on the ground, which will benefit and enable African countries to react very speedily to any conflict situation on the African continent and … the continent will be able to resolve that conflict should if it require military intervention.”
African Union Commissioner for peace and security, Smail Chergui, said they are pleased with the results of the exercise.
Speaking at the closing ceremony, President Jacob Zuma said the day is a moment of pride for the African continent, as it demonstrates that Africa is serious about peace and investing in security.
“We often proclaim that we want African solutions to African problems. Through this exercise, we are demonstrating our desire to solve our problems in the continent.”
The African continent, as part of its Agenda 2063, has committed to silencing the guns by 2020.
For the continent to realise this, President Zuma said the continent still needs to effectively intervene in situations of crisis in order to stabilise countries when the need arises.
“The reality is that some countries in the continent are still experiencing conflict, strife and war. We therefore have a duty as the leadership of the continent to assist sister countries to achieve peace. This is what makes this exercise so important.”
The training, which President Zuma described as historic and a tremendous success, also crystallised cooperation between the AU, regional economic communities and different armed forces for the purposes of future peace keeping operations.
President Zuma congratulated the countries that participated in and availed equipment and resources for the exercise.
“This says a lot about our commitment to peace in our continent. We need to do more to mobilise domestic resources to fund and capacitate our peace support operations as well as raising our own funds.”
This, he said, would ensure that Africa serves its own missions and is self-reliant.
Serving with pride
Before the official speeches, the troops and police demonstrated their impressive capabilities in the scorching Northern Cape sun. From the air strike and parachute jumping demonstration by the police, the mood of the day was evident on the faces of the force, despite fatigue creeping into their eyes.
The premise of the demonstration was based on rapid deployment in response to reports of genocide in a fake country called Carana -- a war game with a bitter touch of reality on a continent which has seen similar bloodshed in some countries.
The training was not without incidents, however. Two soldiers, both from South Africa, were killed during the training, which started on 19 October.
Sergeant Sello Modisane of 21 SA Infantry Battalion was shot and died while taking part in an ambush, part of the rapid deployment capability part of the exercise, according to the head of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), Chief General Solly Shoke. Another soldier, David Mokgele Motaung, died in a car accident during the training.
President Zuma and Chergui paid condolences to both men’s families, saying they died while perusing peace for the continent.
Following the conclusion of the exercise, a report will be submitted to the extra-ordinary meeting of the Specialised Technical Committee on Defence, Safety and Security in January 2016.
The committee will then make recommendations to the AU Summit on the state of readiness and how to constantly enhance the ASD and RDC to effectively address the prevailing nature of security threats in the continent. - SAnews.gov.za
