In October 2010, the first continental Exercise to evaluate the operational readiness of the ASF was conducted in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The exercise, dubbed AMANI AFRICA I, Command Post Exercise provided the climax to a two years training and capacity building cycle designed to evaluate the effectiveness of the African Union Commission (AUC), through the Peace Support Operations Division (PSOD), to employ the African Standby Force (ASF) for an AU mandated peace support operation.

The AMANI AFRICA cycle was a collaborative effort between the African Union (AU) and the European Union (EU), as part of the implementation of an ongoing strategic partnership between the two organisations.

AMANI AFRICA I focused mostly on validating policies and processes, at the continental strategic level, in employing the African Standby Force within the broader African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA). It provided objective evidence to support proposals for further organizational and operational developments of training, procedures and multidimensional capacities of the African Standby Force.

COMMENTS