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On Sat, 15/11/14, Samuel Desire sam4des@yahoo.com [AfricaRealities] <AfricaRealities@yahoogroups.com> wrote:
Subject: [AfricaRealities] Central African peacekeeping force gears up for action
To: "Democracy_Human_Rights@yahoogroupes.fr" <Democracy_Human_Rights@yahoogroupes.fr>, "africarealities@yahoogroups.com" <africarealities@yahoogroups.com>
Date: Saturday, 15 November, 2014, 23:23
Central African peacekeeping force gears up
for actionCOMMENTEMAILPRINTEASY READSHAREPhoto: Laudes Mbon/IRINCEEAC troops
land on a beach in the Republic of Congo as part of
multinational manouevrersLOANGO, SOUTHERN CONGO,
10 November 2014 (IRIN) - With hundreds of soldiers from its
member states successfully completing a series of joint
exercises and manoeuvres in Congo, the Economic Community of
Central African States (CEEAC) says its Multinational Force
for Central Africa (FOMAC), is now ready to intervene in
local conflicts and be part of global anti-terrorism
initiatives.
The recently
completed Loango 2014 operations
brought troops from eight of CEEAC's 10 member countries
(Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Congo, Democratic
Republic of Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Sao Tome et
Principe - Rwanda may rejoin) to Loango in the south of
Congo.
During 10 days of intense
exercises, Congolese,
Angolan and Cameroonian soldiers disembarked from a vessel
supplied by Equatorial Guinea. On land, they constructed a
field hospital and staged simulated exercises in which
hostages were liberated and a rebel leader was captured and
removed to a safe location. The operations involved both
ordinary soldiers and more specialist parachute units. In
overall command was Congolese Chief of Staff Gen Blanchard
Guy Okoï.
Presidents Denis Sassou of
Congo, Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon and Obianga Nguema of
Equatorial Guinea were among the guests at a closing
ceremony on 29 October. Ahmad Allam-Mi, a former Chadian
foreign minister, now CEEAC's secretary-general, said the
organization had shown how quickly it could respond to human
needs in time of crisis. "Our force is capable of bringing
help to the population," Allam-Mi emphasized.
There was a strong emphasis in
Loango on fighting terrorism in central Africa. Gabon
Defence Minister Ernest Mpouho Epigat pointed to the
challenges posed by maritime piracy, but also warned that
the Nigerian Islamist movement Boko Haram was in striking
distance of central African nations. "Cameroon is now on
the frontline," Epigat warned. "It is good that the
countries of the sub-region hold this kind of exercise to
see how we can pool our personnel and resources to respond
to these threats and push them as far away as we
can."
A bit of
history
Until recently,
CEEAC was seen as slow to develop a serious military
profile. Formed in 1983, it was virtually moribund for much
of the 1990s, falling victim to regional rivalries and
having a lack of shared priorities. Geographically, it seems
an incongruous grouping of nations, stretching from Sao
Tomé and Principe in the Atlantic to Chad.
CEEAC used an extraordinary summit in
Libreville (Gabon) in February 1998 to put itself on a new
footing. At a subsequent meeting in Malabo (Equatorial
Guinea) in 1999, heads of state outlined the need to work
more closely on peace and security issues. Tracing CEEAC's
history, security analyst Angela Meyer observed in Peace and Security
Cooperation in Central Africa: Challenges and
Prospects: "The lessons from years of conflict and
crises made it clear that regional economic cooperation
could not succeed without regional peace and
security."
Progress was initially
slow. Member states were bitterly divided over the conflict
in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which broke out in
1998. Chad and Angola sent troops to defend embattled
President Laurent Kabila; Rwanda and Burundi backed rebels
advancing on Kinshasa.
Stronger regional framework takes
shape
But a stronger
regional security framework did take shape. The Council of
Peace and Security of Central Africa (COPAX), operational
since 2004, was set up to guide regional policy on defence
and security and given a mandate not only to deploy civilian
and military missions, but to help mediate in
crises.
The Commission of Defence
and Security, made up of military and police chiefs, works
under a regional Planning Element and military
headquarters,
based in Libreville. CEEAC has at its disposal a Strategic
Analysis Group and a Rapid Alert Mechanism for Central
Africa, operating as an early warning system. Pointe Noire
in Congo hosts a Regional Centre for Maritime
Security.
The collective security
initiatives taken in Central Africa are in line with
priorities outlined for the African Union's (AU) African
Peace and Security Architecture (APSA), which stresses the
need for viable regional structures that replicate what the
AU is doing at continental level. For example, the AU wants
to see regional versions of its Peace and Security Council
(PSC) and its Continental Early Warning System, which
CEEAC's MARAC seeks to emulate.
Critical to the AU's long-term security plans is the
African Standby Force (ASF), which has the right to intervene in a member
state "in grave circumstances, namely war crimes, genocide
and crimes against humanity". The ASF's viability is
premised on efficient standby arrangements with Africa's
five sub-regions, which should "enable Africans to respond
swiftly to a crisis unhampered by any heavy political and
instrumental burden."
In
principle, each regional bloc now has its own contingent
earmarked for ASF deployments, with FOMAC joining parallel
forces in other parts of the continent. An AU review of APSA's progress in 2010
acknowledged serious problems with each region
in delivering on commitments, pointing to ongoing conflicts
and a lack of operational capacity as major
handicaps.
FOMAC - a force in progress
FOMAC was not singled out for criticism, but
clearly needed to become more professional and better
coordinated.
Set up in 2002,
FOMAC's standing orders identified the force as being made
up of military, police, gendarmerie and civilian personnel,
ready to carry out "peace, security and humanitarian
assistance missions". FOMAC's duties also extend to
disarmament and demobilization work and control of fraud and
organizational crimes.
Compared to
the experience gained by Economic Community of West African
States (ECOWAS) troops in West African conflicts, including
Liberia,
Sierra Leone and Guinea-Bissau, Central African soldiers
saw little combat in regional missions, but no shortage of
capacity-building and practical collaboration.
Loango 14, which was months
in the planning, was the latest in a series of multinational
training events, going back nearly a decade, which have
become increasing ambitious in their scale and objectives.
Chad played host to the Barh el Ghazel exercises in 2005 and
2007. Over 3,500 personnel took part in Kwanza 2010 in
Angola.
Filling a
vacuum in CAR
It was the
succession of crises in CAR which gave Central African
troops their first exposure to a regional war zone. FOMUC,
the multinational force of the six-nation Economic and
Monetary Community of Central Africa (CEMAC), was stationed
in
Bangui with a brief to support the CAR Armed Forces, which
had been hit by a wave of mutinies, threatening the rule of
President Ange-Félix Patassé. (CEMAC members are: Gabon,
Cameroon, CAR, Chad, Congo and Equatorial Guinea).
FOMUC was superseded in 2008 by the Mission
of Consolidation of Peace in CAR (MICOPAX - a specific
mission of FOMAC). Funded in part by the EU and working
closely with French troops, its mandate was to help
establish peace and security.
After a
long period of low-intensity guerrilla activity and hesitant
peacebuilding, MICOPAX was hinting at a withdrawal by
September 2012. A Chadian commander told Radio France Internationale
(RFI): "Elections have been held and we are now in a
phase of consolidating the peace."
But the emergence of Séléka, a newly
formed, heavily armed rebel coalition ended that
complacency. As Séléka made critical territorial gains
from December 2012, CEEAC called for more troops, but could
not prevent the fall of Bangui.
As
CEEAC tried, with difficulty, to drive the peace process
outside CAR, MICOPAX numbers tripled, with over 2,000 troops
deployed. MICOPAX 2's brief was ambitious: to guarantee
security, provide protection and help restore police and
judicial system. The leading contributors were Congo,
Burundi, Chad and Rwanda, although Rwanda had left CEEAC in
2007.
Often overshadowed by the
French military presence, FOMAC again faced accusations of
poor leadership and incoherence and having
little real presence outside Bangui. FOMAC's Chadian
contingent was accused of aligning itself with the Séléka
rebels, a charge strongly denied by the Chadian
authorities.
In December 2013,
after lengthy talks between the AU and CEEAC, peacekeeping
operations were formally transferred to the African-led
International Support Mission to the Central African
Republic (MISCA), which in turn transferred authority to the UN
Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in CAR
(MINUSCA) in September 2014.
Troops from CEMAC countries still make up the vast
majority of troops deployed in the CAR.
The
verdict on MICOPAX
FOMAC's role in the country has been much
criticised. But Alex Vines, head of the Africa programme at
the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham
House), said FOMAC soldiers had endeavoured to protect the
civilian population, perhaps more effectively than other
outside forces. "It was not a particularly exemplary
operation", Vines told IRIN. "But the troops were there
in very difficult circumstances."
Vines, who has authored a 10-year study of the AU's approach to
continental security, A Decade of African Peace and
Security, Architecture, said all of the regional forces
meant to contribute to the ASF fell short of the AU's
requirements.
He noted the lack of a regional leader, the role played
(controversially) by Nigeria in West Africa in the past, and
also of states, like Angola, having a stake in different
regional blocs.
Rwanda rejoins the fold
Rwanda pulled out of CEEAC in 2007, pleading
insufficient funds, and engagements in too many other
regional blocs, the East Africa Community (EAC), for
example. The deployment of Rwanda troops in the CAR as part
of MICOPAX suggested that Rwanda was ready to re-engage with
CEEAC. This was confirmed by Rwandan Foreign Minister Louise
Mushikiwab at Loanga, who said her country had come a long
way from the genocide of 1994 and wanted to play a full role
in CEEAC. "We have decided to rejoin our brothers and
sisters in Central Africa with whom we share an important
heritage," Mushikiwabo explained. "At the next
of its summits, we will reintegrate with CEEAC. With great
pleasure we will come back into the heart of the
family."
lmm/cs/cb
Theme (s): Conflict, Security,[This report does not necessarily reflect the views of
the United Nations]Central African peacekeeping force gears up for
action
Central
African peacekeeping force gears up for
actionWith hundreds of soldiers
from its member states successfully completing a series of
joint exercises and manoeuvres in Congo, the Economic
Community of Central
Afri...View
on www.irinnews.orgPreview
by Yahoo
Posted by: Pierre Chekem <p_chekem@yahoo.co.uk>
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