East African Nations Pledge 5,000 Troops for Standby Force

By ADF On Jan 13, 2015

Ugandan police officers serving with the African Union Mission in Somalia prepare to board a United Nations aircraft in Mogadishu. AFP/Getty Images

DEFENCEWEB

The Eastern Africa Standby Force (EASF) is one step closer to becoming a reality. Ten nations have pledged to contribute a total of three motorized battalions, one mechanized battalion and one light infantry battalion of 850 men each. The EASF is set to become operational by December 2014 under the auspices of the African Union.

A resolution to establish the long-delayed regional rapid reaction force was adopted by regional heads of state, defense ministers and military chiefs at a meeting in Kigali, Rwanda, in August 2014. Rwanda chairs the Council of Ministers of Defence and Security of Eastern Africa and the Committee of Eastern Africa Chiefs of Defence Staff. Rwanda Defence Force spokesman Brig. Gen. Joseph Nzabamwita told the Rwandan daily The New Times that member countries already have pledged significant troop and materiel contributions for the force.

Regional defense, intelligence and security services chiefs from Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Seychelles, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda who met in Kigali also agreed that each country would contribute four special police units of between 140 and 170 officers to support the civilian peacekeeping component during active deployments. Other combat support services pledged include two hospitals, combat engineers and special forces.

“From the pledges made, we got all the troops and the police officers we needed to put at the disposal of the force to enable it to do rapid deployments, at any time,” Nzabamwita said.

The EASF will not be based in one particular country; each country will host and sustain its own contingent and deploy it when required. The force will become the regional African Union crisis response force, with powers to intervene in regional conflicts to protect civilians, prevent loss of life, and contain regional armed insurgencies. Rwandan Minister of Defence Gen. James Kabarebe said the region should not wait for donors but quickly fund the initiative because the region is far behind the rest of Africa in terms of meeting the AU Peace and Security Council goal of having a peacekeeping force of 5,000 per regional bloc by December 2014.