Ten African armies to join manoeuvres in Sudan

The Eastern Africa Standby Force (EASF) held a conference, Monday, to plan for military exercises  in Sudan scheduled for November.

In December 2015 ESAF announced that 5,000 troops were ready to be deployed whenever required to intervene in support of the Sudanese peace process.

Representatives from Sudan, Somalia, Ethiopia, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Rwanda, Seychelles, the Comoros and Djibouti will participate in the conference.

The conference was attended by the Director of the Secretariat of the East African Mechanism and members of the Secretariat Dr. Abdullah Omar Bou and members of the secretariat.

Sudanese Minister of State for Defence, Lieutenant General Ali Mohammed Salem, stressed the need to be vigilant against security threats facing the countries of the region, especially terrorism, smuggling, human trafficking and border crossing, in his opening speech.

Sudan currently heads the Council of Ministers of Defence and the Chiefs of Staff of the OIC countries.

Salem went on to explain that this conference coincides with other efforts to reform and revise the structures of the African Union Commission as well as other tasks and responsibilities pertinent to regional mechanisms related to the AU Emergency Forces.