Eastern African Standby Force: UPDF Ready for AU Deployment

By Kampala Post Reporter

The Uganda Peoples Defense Force (UPDF) will extend its regional reach to the Eastern African Standby Force (EASF), as it’s set to become an AU Standby Force.

UPDF is currently part of AMISOM, a combined force deployed in Somalia to fight Alshabab terrorists.

The Eastern African Standby Force will become the standby force for the African Union (AU) from July 1 to December 31, 2019. During the five month period, the Force will be deployed by AU where the need arises.

UPDF Spokesperson Brig Richard Karemire says for the last 15years, EASF has been training various participants and has built a database of over 5200 personnel from 10 different countries that include; Uganda,Kenya, Sudan,Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia, Seychelles, Burundi, Rwanda and Comoros. He reveals however, that the personnel which include the military, police and civilians, will remain operating in their respective countries until called upon for deployment.

Speaking at a function to commemorate 15years of EASF at the secretariat in Karen, Kenya, the Force’s Director, Dr Abdillahi Omar Bouh thanked the different member states for their participation in getting the Force ready. He also commended their development partners, the UK and Germany for the financial support to ensure the smooth running of the various trainings. He assured the representatives from the different member states of EASF’s readiness to deploy.

“EASF has been ready to deploy and just awaits instructions from the AU,” he said. The Force Commander, Brig.Gen Aladdin thanked the different member states for always sending the best and the brightest to participate in the various exercises. He said training the different member states together is mainly for purposes of conducting operational briefs to the different components, to ensure readiness when deployed. He added that this is the best way to harmonize different backgrounds, cultures and doctrines to incorporate them into one EASF block when deployed.

Guests were later taken on a tour of the field training where participants from the ten countries gave briefs of how they would carry out their roles in the respective components when deployed. Some of the leaders of the different components were Senior UPDF officers and a Uganda Police Officer.