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Leonard Ncube Victoria Falls Reporter—
THE Africa Union requires about $1 billion to set up a unified military force that should be operationalised before the end of the year, a senior official said yesterday. AU Commission Head of Peace Operations Division Sivuyile Bam told journalists at a Press briefing on the sidelines of the 8th meeting of the Specialised Technical Committee of Ministers Defence, Safety and Security that the project, which is critical to the continent, comes at a great cost.
He said the original concept of the African Standby Force (ASF) entails establishing a force made up of 25,000 military, police and civilians on standby in their respective countries, in the five sub-regions. The sub-regions are Southern Africa, Central Africa, East Africa, West Africa and North Africa.
Bam said the force would be modelled along the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) lines and would be expected to maintain peace and stability on the continent.
The force would also be prepared and equipped to intervene in regional hotspots at short notice.
“In terms of strength, we were looking at a force as big as 25,000 members to be broken down into various units.
“In terms of funding, operations incur a lot of money when they are on the field but when forces are home there is not much required,” said Bam.
“In AMISOM (African Union Mission to Somalia) the budget is just under $1 billion and if all regions employ forces at the same time, we would need about that same amount for the ASF. But if they don’t, we need about $200 million which is still a huge expense.”
AMISOM is a peace keeping mission approved by the United Nations (UN) and operated by the AU in Somalia.
Bam said they had some partners such as the United Nations, European Union and other individual donors whom they are working with to raise the required funding.
“Out of the five regions three have reached a certain level while the other two are still having some challenges but I can’t name them,” he said.
“I think we will be ready by the end of the year. The issue is not about non-availability of personnel because Africa has vast human resources. We have troops but the challenge is they won’t be having equipment. It is expensive to maintain people in the middle of nowhere while on operations and the size will be determined by what can be supported.”
Bam said the AU had been facing funding challenges for the project and the Obasanjo Commission had been set up to look into issues of financing.
He said despite the challenges, all member states were willing to see the creation of the ASF coming to fruition.
“We are looking at the equipment the force will need, protection, food, fuel which all need money and for now we have a challenge of member states not confirming pledges they made to say how many members or what equipment they will provide,” Bam said.
He said the biggest challenge was the changing nature of conflict in Africa since the time when the ASF idea was mooted in Zimbabwe in 1996, hence the need for a new approach.
Delays in establishing a standby force have seen former colonisers intervening in African disputes such as in Mali and the Central African Republic (CAR) two years ago.
Bongani Ndlovu