The Eastern Africa standby force (EASF) concluded its field training exercise on Sunday in the Gebeit military base in eastern Sudan.
The drill – dubbed Mashariki Salaam II – included troops from Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti, Kenya, Uganda, Seychelles, Comoro Islands, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Burundi.
Sudan’s Defence Minister Awad ibn Auf, addressing the exercise’s closing ceremony, said the EASF was ready to confront terrorist elements that are active in some countries of the region.
“The mechanism of the Eastern Africa multinational forces is in contact with regional and international forces to intervene at all levels,” Xinhua quotes him to have said.
Auf also said that “some of the eastern Africa countries are still experiencing internal conflicts and terrorist operations. I assure that it is time to face these challenges.”
EASF head of mission, Ambassador Issimail Chanfi said the drill was an assurance that the authority had the ability to send troops to peace missions in the region.
“This exercise has confirmed that the EASF is moving to higher levels of professionalism, and indeed the EASF has the capability to effectively deploy in a real peace operation mission,” he said.
He added that the exercise has actualized the capacity for the EASF to operate in a multidimensional and multinational setup.
“Indeed the isolated environment of Gebeit was ideal for maximum concentration, where the levels of cooperation and team spirit among the exercise participants were quite impressive,” he noted.
Established in 2004, EASF is one of the five regional multidimensional forces of the African Standby Force, and assigned to enhance peace and security in the eastern African region.
