African Diplomacy Observer

The ten member States of the Economic Community of Central African States -ECCAS- (Angola, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Congo, DRC, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and Sao Tome and Principe), plus a non-member State, Togo, carried out on 17 November 2007 a common military exercise in Chad. The exercise code-named "Bahr el-Gazel 2005" took place in the Chadian town of Moussoro, located at approximately 250 Km away from the capital N’djamena and rassembled a light brigade of 1,600 troops made of companies from the ten ECCAS members States.

The exercise was undertaken in presence of presidents Denis Sassou Nguesso from Congo, François Bozize from the CAR, Omar Bongo Ondimba from Gabon and Joseph Kabila president of the DRC and Head of the ECCAS. According to the organization Committee, this exercise was expected to be an inter-army multilateral peacekeeping simulation which envisioned to be an occasion for exchanging experiences on peacekeeping techniques, as well as an instrument of regional defence aims at preventing and resolving peacefully conflicts in Africa.

Source: Afriquecentrale.info

The Canadian Ministry of Defense organized a high level training on demining for 25 peace soldiers pertaining to 12 African countries to prepare them for their future deployment and assignments in the framework of the UN-AU Hybrid operation in Darfur. This training was organized for this contingent of peace soldiers of the African Union (AU) in Nairobi, Kenya and was delivered by Canadian military within the framework of the Canada Foreign Policy and Military Diplomacy.

Unit Commandants from Algeria, Benin, Egypt, Mali, Kenya, Rwanda, Senegal, Namibia, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia participated in this training.

Commandant Mike Calnan of the Canadian Ministry of Defense indicated that this exercise, codenamed "Blue Bonnet", envisioned to train and prepare officers of the rank of Captain and Commandant to face challenges of operations in situations similar to Darfur. According to him, the "Tactical Operation’s Staff Course is grounded in the context of the global response to the crisis in the region of Darfur and in efforts at restoring peace in that region through peacekeeping training. He also made clear that this training should give the participants basic necessaries competencies to efficiently take part to peacekeeping operations in violent environments."

Also in the context of this training, AU soldiers were due to be initiated to the efficient use of media through notably live interviews.

Source: AngolaPress

Norway and Sweden announced that they will contribute a joint engineer force to the UN-AU Mission in Darfur (UNAMID) authorized on July 31, 2007 by the resolution 1769 of UN Security Council. This joint effort will aim to ensure the effective deployment of the force by the end of 2007 and is being planned for a period of up to 12 months.

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt and Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre said that Norway and Sweden consider it important to assist the UN in its efforts to create peace in Darfur, and that it is crucial that progress is made in the political talks between the parties to the conflict.

This support is part of an international mobilization to provide the UNAMID with the necessary means (human, technical, financial, etc.) to carry out it mandate in a security, humanitarian, political and geographical environment particularly challenging.

Source: Norway Ministry of Foreign Affairs

On August 28, 2007, China donated 300,000 US dollars to the African Union (AU) in support of its ongoing peacekeeping operation in the shattered Somalia. This support will undoubtedly support the AU which is regularly experiencing structural difficulties, including financial ones, in the framework of the maintenance of peace and security in Africa and particularly in the deployment and conduct of its peace support and peacekeeping operations on the continent.

According to the AU Chairperson, Alpha Omar Konare, such assistance from the international community was very welcomed, as it would help the AU deploy the much-needed military force in Somalia, which would contribute to the stabilization of the situation there. He also stressed the AU’s determination to support the ongoing internal dialogue in Somalia, saying that the AU Commission would take necessary action to reinforce the outcome of the dialogue and speed up the follow-up process.

The Chinese Ambassador to Ethiopia and, at the same time, Chinese Representative to the AU, Lin Lin, for its part said that the Chinese Government intended to continue to support the AU’s efforts to bring peace to Somalia and other areas of conflict in Africa.

The AU Mission in Somalia, the AMISOM, was created in January 2007 by the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) and authorized in February 2007 by the UN Security Council to contribute for a period of six months to the initial stabilization of the ravaged country before the setting up of a UN operation that will take on the long-term stabilization and post-conflict reconstruction of the country.

Source: Xinhua via COMTEX

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) Heads of State and Government met in Lusaka (Zambia) from 5 to 18 August 2007 to discuss, among other issues, regional integration, the implementation of infrastructure development in the region and the launching of the SADC Standby Force.

The launching of this force has been decided on 17th August 2007. The force will be one of the five regional brigades to be established by each of the sub-regional organizations (ECOWAS, SADC, IGAD, ECCAS, UMA) that will composed the Africa Standby Force (ASF) whose overall objective is to achieve full African Union capacity to manage complex peacekeeping operations in conjunction with regional standby forces by 30 June 2010. The African Standby Force (ASF) will constitute an important part of the African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) that is being set up since the creation and effective launching of the Peace and Security Council of the African Union (AU) in 2004.

According to Levy Mwanawasa, the president of Zambia, which presides over the SADC, the SADC Force will be able to take part to observation, monitoring, peacekeeping and securization missions. Furthermore, it could also be charged to undertake disarmament missions in the aftermath of conflicts and provide assistance after natural disaster.

The Force will be made of troops for the SADC member states. With the exception of Madagascar which doesn’t possess Armed Forces, the other member states will provide troops. These countries include the following: Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. According to Aziz Pahad, South Africa Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, the SADC Brigade will form part of the AU-UN hybrid force that will be deploy in the Sudanese western province of Darfur. He added that the SADC Standby Force, which will be fully operational by 31 October 2007, will be based in Botswana, although each of its national components will be based in their respective country on permanent alert.

Last 15th of August 2007, the Republic of Congo commemorated the 47th anniversary of its independence from France. On this occasion, the Congolese president, Denis Sassou-Nguesso, addressed the nation on the state of the country and the challenges it faces for the future. In this address, he underlined the return of peace after years of civil war and political instability and the country’s progresses (economic, social and diplomatic).

With regard to the country’s diplomatic achievements, president Sassou emphasized recent successes of the Congolese diplomacy. Among these successes, he noted the membership of the country in the UN Security Council during the past one and half year. In the same vein, the Congo has for four years continuously assumed the presidency of the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS). Moreover, in 2006 the Congo has been chosen to preside over the African Union (AU). According to the president, all this illustrates the efficiency of the country’s external policy; an efficiency which allowed it to take back its place and role on the international scene and make its voice heard and appreciated.

The recent appointment of the Congolese former Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General and of the African Union Head of the Commission to the Darfur, and therefore Head of the recently created UN-AU Mission in Darfur (UNAMID), illustrated the recognition of the country’s diplomacy merit. In addition, he announced that Congo will increase its contribution to peace efforts in Darfur with a supplementary company of the Congolese Armed Forces for the UNAMID that will reinforce Congolese observers already present in the region.

The African Union (AU) Commissioner for Peace and Security, Ambassador Said Djinnit, visited NATO Headquarters on 2 March 2007. During this visit, he met with NATO Secretary-General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer and addressed the North Atlantic Council, NATO’s principal decision-making body. This is the second visit of an AU official after that of the Chairman of the AU Commission, Alpha Oumar Konare in May 2005.

These visits marked the willingness of the AU to progressively set-up a long-term partnership with NATO in the capacity-building and training areas. The implication of NATO and particularly its commitment to Africa’s stability is very recent. In that regard, since July 2005, NATO provided airlift in and out of Dafur for almost 24,000 AU peacekeepers, as well as training to African military observers and other AU-led mission officers to Darfur. Through this cooperation, NATO became a considerable actor in the stability of Africa. However, the direct implication of NATO in Africa through sending troops to undertake stability or peacekeeping operations is not foreseeable in the near future.

La Chine entend jouer un rôle de plus en plus croissant dans le domaine du maintien de la paix et de la sécurité en Afrique. La volonté du renforcement de sa place et de son action en Afrique dans le domaine du maintien de la paix et de la sécurité n’est que le prolongement d’un intérêt et d’une politique volontariste, à l’endroit de ce continent, qui se sont déjà exprimés de manière croissante au cours des dernières années dans des domaines aussi divers que politique, diplomatique, commercial, industriel, agricole, financier, économique, social et culturel.