adminDorcas Jiri Herald Reporter
Training is critical as the African Union takes steps to establish a fully fledged African Standby Force to maintain peace and stability on the continent, a security expert has said.
Addressing delegates at the opening of a two-week training exercise for the envisaged African Standby Force (ASF), the AU training director Major General Samaila IIiya said capacity building was necessary to achieve stability in Africa.
“No one country, no region can go it alone now, it’s just impossible,” he said.
“We must work together in terms of keeping the peace and stability in any region or in any country. Training is therefore necessary as we step up efforts to establish the African Standby Force to police regional hotspots.”
The African Union Commission is running the training as part of the AMANI Africa II exercise cycle to ensure participants have the requisite skills to carry out their duties when the ASF becomes operational in 2015.
“For the African Standby Force, we are expecting that by next year we should be ready to go and work in hotspots,” Major General IIiya said. “We must work towards achieving that by next year.”
ASF is expected to consist of multidimensional capabilities which include military, police and civilian on standby in their countries of origin and geared up for rapid deployment.
The exercise is expected to reach its peak with a field training exercise to be hosted by the Southern African Development Community (SADC) by April 2015 to evaluate the readiness of the ASF as well as further build capacities for the ASF in the planning and execution of AU peace support operations.
“This aspect of training is very important because this is where the direction for peace support operations is actually takes place. Ensuring peace and stability in Africa is our priority,” said Major General IIiya, an ex-Nigerian army official.
The two week training brought together security experts from the African Union Commission, the European Union, United Nations, SADC and other partners.
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