December 21, 2009 -- Ten nations in eastern Africa will jointly develop a military force capable of intervening in crises anywhere in the region.

The United States’ Africa Command (Africom) and the Nairobi-based British Peace Training Team are both playing important facilitating roles as the African Union works to mobilise an Eastern Africa Standby Force (EASF).   

Africom leaders and the US Horn of Africa Task Force were present when the Force recently conducted its first field exercise in Djibouti.   Some 1,500 soldiers, police and administrative staff took part in the week-long series of simulated military actions.   

They responded to various scenarios including dealing with insurgents operating in a fictitious country named Carana, a staged ambush, a helicopter crash and disabled vehicles blocking roadways.   

Soldiers and police also accompanied a convoy of displaced civilians while Kenyan and Djiboutian units prevented a crowd from entering a secured area where a medical team was treating injured persons.   

Lt Col PK Njema, commanding officer of the EASF’s Kenya Battalion, said: “The exercise is important to the region as its success will show that we can respond to any situation occurring within member states.”   

The African Union plans to create similar forces in four other parts of the continent, that will be “conducting monitoring missions, preventive deployment and armed interventions at the behest of member states where peace and security are imperilled. The forces will also carry out post-conflict disarmament and humanitarian relief operations.   

EASF’s coordinators said they aim at achieving limited operational capability by the end of next year, and full capacity by 2015.   

But Daniel Volman, director of the Washington-based African Security Research Project remained sceptical:   “EASF is still a long way from conducting effective operations on its own — they will need logistical support, operational advice and other assistance from the United States and European countries, for many years to come.”    

US military units supported the Djibouti exercise by providing material goods that included tents, generators, fuel pumps, water tanks, tables chairs as well as other services.   

The countries represented in this exercise were Comoros, Kenya, Madagascar, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Uganda as well as Djibouti.    

Tanzanian officials were on hand as observers since Tanzania is a member of the Southern Africa Development Community, which is developing its own standby force.   

Eventually, the EASF could consist of 13 member states, with the anticipated involvement of Eritrea, Ethiopia, Mauritius and Seychelles. The standby force began to take shape six years ago at a meeting of African Union experts in Jinja. (Eastafrican)