KAMPALA, Aug. 30 (Xinhua) -- Over 350 troops from 13 African countries on Thursday started a one-week joint military training exercise to respond to crises on the continent.
Lt. Col. Deo Akiiki, Uganda's deputy military spokesperson, told Xinhua that the joint Command Post Exercise under the African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crises (ACIRC) Volunteer Nations aims at equipping the troops with skills to work together to ensure security and safety.
Lt. Gen. Wilson Mbadi, Uganda's deputy Chief of Defense Forces, opened the exercise dubbed "UTULIVU AFRICA IV" has attracted troops from Algeria, Angola, Burkina Faso, Benin, Chad, Egypt, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, South Africa, Sudan and Uganda.
They are meeting at the Uganda Rapid Deployment Capability Center, in the eastern town of Jinja, according to a military statement issued here.
Mbadi said the exercise is driven by African states preferring to solve their own problems and reduce the influence of external actors on continental affairs.
"The Western states-initiated withdrawal from African conflict management after the disasters in Somalia and Rwanda, made the imperative of African solutions for African problems even stronger," said Mbadi.
Maj. Gen. Mark Nakibus Lakara, the exercise director, said the training aims at preparing ACIRC forces for future intervention operations in line with the African Union (AU) Constitutive Act.
Sivuyille Bam, who represented the AU Commission, commended the regional body for steadily developing a force capable to rapidly deploy at a time of need as AU or United Nations put together the necessary operational and logistical demands to deploy.
The ACIRC is a temporary multinational African interventionist standby force set up in November 2013 to be replaced by the African Standby Force when it becomes fully operational.
