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ECOWAS Military Exercise ends in
Bamako
Accra, June 23, Ghanadot/GNA - The ECOWAS Command Post
Exercise, code-named Jigui 2008, designed to assess the
capability of the ECOWAS Task Force Headquarters of the
regional Standby Force has ended with organizers and
partners expressing satisfaction over the overall
performance of the participants.
A statement issued by the ECOWAS Commission in Abuja and
copied to the GNA said that Jigui 2008 also enabled
participants to assess the ability of the headquarters staff
to manage the communication links necessary for peacekeeping
operations.
It said that at a press conference to end the seven-day
exercise at the Ecole de Maintien de la Paix Alioune Blondin
Beye (Peacekeeping School) in Bamako, Mali on Friday, June
20th 2008, the ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs,
Peace and Security, Col. Mahamane Toure, said the exercise
had enabled ECOWAS to appropriately evaluate the operational
readiness of the Task Force Headquarters.
He said the credibility of the exercise would encourage
similar programmes at different levels, all of which are
designed to prepare the troops of the ECOWAS Standby Force
tactically, strategically and logistically.
The exercises will be held later this year and in 2009.
The statement said Gen. Bonnet of the French Forces in Dakar
said that France and other partners were delighted that the
exercise, which achieved the set objectives, could be
described as “highly credible” and a success.
The Jigui 2008 exercise, the first to be organized by ECOWAS,
included a Malian Logistic Sub-Command, a Nigerian East Sub
Command and a Senegalese West Sub Command as well as staff
of the ECOWAS Commission in Abuja.
It also included police, gendarmerie and civilian components
to test the force’s operational procedures. Prominent among
the civilians were the International Committee of the Red
Cross (ICRC) and the media.
The statement said for the first time, the regional force
exercise involved the African Union, the Southern Africa
Development Community (SADC), the multinational Standby High
Readiness Brigade based in Denmark (SHIRBRIG) and the
Ethiopia-based Eastern African Standby Force (EASTBRIG).
Jigui 2008 is consistent with previous training programmes
of ECOWAS and is within the framework of the African Union
(AU) Standby Force, which seeks to have ready by 2010 one
force by each of the Regional Economic Communities (RECs) in
Africa.
The ECOWAS target is to create a 2,770-man Task Force of the
6,500 troops of the regional force which will be available
under the control of the AU.
Military training preceding the Bamako exercise include a
Command Post Exercise aimed at training the Task Force staff
in June 2006 in Dakar, another Command Post Exercise in
December 2007 in Accra and the West Battalion Exercise code
named DEGGO 27 which took place in December 2007 in Thies,
Senegal.
All the exercises were supported by the host governments as
well as France, Denmark, Canada, Germany, the Netherlands,
the United Kingdom, the United States of America and the
European Union.
GNA
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