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Sadc army to be
operational by August
Staff Writer THE Southern Africa Development Community (Sadc) should have a fully operational regional army at the beginning of August in line with African Union efforts to ensure the security of the continent from civil and foreign-induced destabilisation. Sadc’s peacekeeping brigade will constitute a part of the African Union’s Standby Force (AUSF), which will be tasked with quelling potential military and civilian conflicts on the continent. Sadc member States will voluntarily provide the troops and the brigade will be administered from Gaborone, Botswana’s capital, which has been the regional grouping’s traditional headquarters. The rapid response brigade will not, however, only focus on Southern Africa alone, but will also be deployed to hotspots across the continent and beyond thereby complementing the efforts of the African Union (AU) and the United Nations. This has been in response to recommendations made by the AU to form regional military brigades in Central, Eastern, Northern, Southern and Western Africa for the purposes of peacekeeping and defence. Through a number of training exercises carried out over the past few years, Sadc troops have studied various methods of humanitarian relief operations, hostage rescue, stress management and casualty evacuation among other key aspects of peacekeeping and regional cooperation. On a continental as well as a regional level, there have been a number of crises – both man made and natural – that have devastated Africa over the past few years though the presence of rapid response teams could have significantly minimised the overall impact. At one point, Libya proposed the creation of a United African Army that would be conducted by a general board of command as the “highest authority in the case of peace and war and chaired by the President of the (African) Union.” This proposal was motivated by the realisation that the security of any AU member state was closely connected with the security of the rest of the Union. Consequently, a threat of aggression against one member is to be viewed as a threat to the entire AU. This would require “The use of the United African Army for defence as an implementation of the common defence policy of the AU contained in paragraph ‘D’ in Article 4 of the Constitutive Act of the African Union.” The United African Army would have the right to intervene in any member state “in order to restore political legitimacy in case of a dangerous threat or in case of grave circumstances such as war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity”. As part of the establishment of a continental army, member states would be required to build relevant infrastructure such as bases, airports and other facilities. Training programmes in peace keeping, such as the internationally renowned courses conducted at the Zimbabwe Staff College, would also be conducted to ensure efficiency and relevance to the African context. The now-defunct Organisation of African Union attempted instituting a continental army to battle colonialism in Africa but many problems were met and members settled for a liberation committee based in Dar es Salaam. Those same problems could yet come and haunt people who envisage the creation of a United African Army. Furthermore, for a variety of reasons both historical and contemporary, the continent is ravaged by regionalism and nuances of tribalism. As such, a quota method would have to be fairly worked out to ensure representativeness at both officer and ordinary staff level. For it to respond appropriately to crises on the continent, funding would have to be sufficient for the acquisition of appropriate equipment and speedy deployment. With the United States of America increasingly acting unilaterally, coupled with the continued militarisation of the NATO bloc, observers have time and again stressed the need for Africa to establish a unit that is prepared to act as a deterring factor. Furthermore, it should be able to engage in actual battles when mere deterrence has failed. In addition to military operations, the army could also perform some of the duties performed by regular domestic armies such as civil projects. This could be particularly beneficial in times of crisis such as floods and locust invasions. The Mulindwas Communication Group "With Yoweri Museveni, Uganda is in anarchy" Groupe de communication Mulindwas "avec Yoweri Museveni, l'Ouganda est dans l'anarchie" |
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