African Standby Force

(PANA)—Africa’s defence and security ministers are due to meet here Friday to set the pace for the establishment of a permanent force for bursting conflicts and the maintenance of security in the continent, African Union’s Peace and Security Commissioner Said Djinnit said Monday.

A one-day session of chiefs of defence staff and heads of security service from all member states of the African Union (AU) will hold a day ahead to prepare grounds for the ministerial meeting at the AU headquarters.

Opening a joint meeting of experts and the Military Staff Committee on the establishment of the African Standby Force (ASF), Djinnit said that the ministers would review the progress made towards the formation of the ASF from regional to continental levels.

Also, the ministers would validate or suggest changes on what has been done so far to pave the way for the next phase of putting the ASF in place.

The AU, however, is faced with serious challenges in this undertaking that is vital for the peace and security of African countries and ridding the continent of the scourge of conflicts.

According to Djinnit, the AU Commission (AUC) faces a serious problem of capacity for leadership in driving the process of establishing the continental force.

"This has been a very serious problem that needs more determination on all oursides to overcome. The Commission is expected to provide leadership to drive the process," he said.

Paying tribute to the AU member states and their respective regional economic communities for the efforts they have made to set up five Regional Standby Brigades, Djinnit noted, however, that the brigades had not evolved at the same pace because the dynamics in each region were different.

"The biggest challenge is to make sure that the five brigades are developed and seen as brigades of one ASF. We need greater rationalisation. Harmonisation of the work at the brigade level is key," Djinnit emphasised.

He urged meeting to make sure that the brigades would work in a single direction and as part of the ASF, which is the component of the African peace and securit y structure.

Another chronic challenge facing the AU is the paucity of funding.

"We have been faced with the serious problem of implementing this very important agenda of the AU ...to provide the continent with the tools for implementing it s own decision by deploying peacekeeping missions," said Djinnit.

"Unfortunately, we have not been able to mobilise resources even for the implementation of the ASF. We have been extremely dependent on the resources from our partners," he added.

Djinnit, however, was optimistic that the meetings holding here this week would give due attention to the need to provide the AUC and its regional arms with the necessary resources in order to do away with total de pendence on resources from partners.

Without naming them, the Commissioner paid particular tribute to the partners, for their financial and technical support in implementing the framework document on the establishment of the ASF.

He also noted that through preparatory workshops, all AU regions proved not only their commitment but also their ownership of the ASF and showed that the Force " is regionally based but continental in terms of its perspective."

As a result of the workshops, AU members have noted the need to hold additional discussions on the civilian dimensions in terms of peacekeeping.

The AU Protocol on the Establishment of the Peace and Security Council mandates the ASF to intervene in various cases, including violation of human rights, war crimes and genocide as well as providing humanitarian assistance.

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