The Eastern Africa Standby Force (EASF) has concluded a three-day verification exercise in Uganda to assess the country’s pledged military, police and civilian capabilities for rapid deployment in peace support operations across the region.
The exercise assessed Uganda’s readiness, interoperability, force capabilities and equipment pledged to the EASF. Verification activities took place at the Uganda Police Force, the International Peace Support Operations Training Centre (IPSO-T) in Singo and the Uganda Rapid Deployment Capability (URDC) headquarters in Jinja.
EASF Force Commander Brigadier General Stephen Maina Huria said the verification had confirmed that Uganda has capabilities that can be deployed rapidly to support peace and stability in the Eastern Africa region.
“As a Force Commander, I am really satisfied with the preparation, capabilities and readiness of the troops. Seeing the morale of the police, civilian and military components is quite impressive,” Brig Gen Huria said.
He said the verification exercise is conducted in accordance with Article 12(2)(f) of the Agreement Establishing the Eastern Africa Standby Force, which provides for the verification of standby force capabilities in member states.
Brigadier General Emmanuel Kazahura, Commander of the Headquarters Uganda Rapid Deployment Capability (URDC), said URDC’s vision is to establish a fully operational force that is well prepared, equipped and supported, and capable of undertaking integrated national, regional and continental peace support and crisis response operations.
He said the capability is mandated to prepare, deploy, sustain and recover forces for rapid intervention across Eastern Africa and the wider continent within 90 days, while maintaining the capacity to respond to urgent crises within 14 days.
“We have a force that is ready for whatever operation you want to do. The equipment is ready,” Brig Gen Kazahura said.
He emphasised the importance of timely intervention to contain emerging crises.
“Response develops like a storm, and if you leave the after-effects to explode, you may not even be able to restore the situation,” Brig Gen Kazahura said.
He cited Uganda’s experience in responding to crises, including deployments linked to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, as evidence of the importance of timely intervention and coordinated regional responses.
He said the ultimate objective is to stabilise crises in line with scenarios approved by the African Union and ensure deployed forces contribute to peace and security.
The Eastern Africa Standby Force is a regional security mechanism comprising nine member states: Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda.
