African Standby Force: Nigerian Military Contingent Return

Channels Tv

The second batch of the Nigerian military contingent to the African Union Standby Force have returned from training in South Africa.



The contingent comprising 41 soldiers and officers of the Nigerian Army, Navy and the Air Force arrived the Nnamdi Azikiwe Airport with assurance of a prepared African Union Force to combat insecurity in the continent.

According to Navy Commodore Uche Onyia who received the Nigerian contingent, the effort is to operationalize the African Union resolution of 2013 to establish a stand by African Union Force that will respond to security emergencies in the continent.

The idea behind the African Standby Force is to present a continent that is united in preventing and acting against conflicts and the plan moved a step further towards its realisation with the completion of the Amani Africa II combat training in South Africa.

Military, police and civilian personnel from the five regional economic blocs on the continent participated in the 3-week programme in South Africa.

South Africa’s President, Jacob Zuma, who was at the closing ceremony, commended the participants and the continent for moving forward with efforts to solve its own problems.

“This exercise demonstrates that Africa is serious about peace and that the continent is also serious about investing in peace,” he said.

The African Union Standby Force is supposed to be 25,000 men strong, requires about 1 billion US dollars to become functional and expectedly deployable within 14 days as against nine months in more global operations.

Nigeria, Algeria and Angola were commended for strategic airlift capabilities at short notice during Amani Africa II exercise and Nigeria’s Chief of Defense Staff, General Abayomi Olonisakin, also commended his men.

“Your participation in this exercise is highly commendable. So I want you to know that the President is happy with it,” he said to them.

He also told Channels Television in South Africa that the Director of the exercise is a retired Nigerian Major-General, an indication that “Nigeria is committed to the peace, stability and security of our continent”.

With Mali, Libya, Central African Republic, Somalia, South Sudan and Nigeria still facing security challenges, there would be expectations that the ASF could come in handy but the Defence Attache, Embassy of Niger, Col. Mamou Souley, said that this would still take some time as the different troops would need to develop better synergy.