The African Union High Representative for Operationalisation of the African Standby Force, H.E. General Sekouba Konate paid a courtesy call on SADC Executive Secretary, Dr Stergomena Lawrence Tax while in the SADC Region for the Main Planning Conference of the AMANI AFRICA II Field Training Exercise that was held in Gaborone, Botswana from October 09 – 11, 2013.
Dr Tax welcomed General Konate and thanked him for making time in his packed schedule to visit the SADC Headquarters. She pledged the SADC support for, and commitment to the Exercise and other African Union efforts for the good of the continent.Gen. Konate briefed Dr Tax on the Main Planning Conference of the AMANI AFRICA II Field Training Exercise.
The Conference was convened to plan for the remaining activities of the Amani Africa exercise cycle in line with the implementation of the African Standby Force Roadmap toward the the final field training exercise to be held in October 2014 in Lesotho.Planners from the AU Commission, SADC, who is also the host Regional Economic Community, and other regional blocks as well as the European Union, United Nations Office to the African Union, the Pearson Centre and other partners attended the Conference.
The opening ceremony presided over by the African Union High Representative for Operationalisation of the African Standby Force, H.E. General Sekouba
SADC HOSTING AMANI AFRICAKonate, the former president of Guinea.
The Amani Africa Cycle is one of the main tools in supporting the development of the African Standby Force whose overall objective is to validate the capacity of the African Union to mandate and employ a Rapid Deployment Capability of the African Standby Force as a startup operation, and to run a full multidimensional peace support operation.
Representing a significant development of the African Standby Force, the planning Conference also served to evaluate the state of readiness towards the achievement of Full Operational Capability in 2015.
