Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (PANA) – Underlining the need for sustained efforts towards conflict prevention, a senior official of the African Union Commission (AUC) urged the continent’s defence ministers to get the proposed African Standby Force (ASF) fully operational by the 2015 deadline.
“The African Standby Force cannot continue to be a synonym of an endless process, punctuated by workshops and studies,” said Ambassador Smaïl Chergui, AU Commissioner for Peace and Security, at the opening of the 7th Meeting of the Specialised Technical Committee on Defence, Safety and Security being held at the AU headquarters in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
At its May 2013 ordinary session, Chergui recalled, the AU Assembly decided to immediately establish an African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crises (ACIRC), conceived as a transitional arrangement, pending the full operationalisation of the ASF and its Rapid Deployment Capability.
“This Capacity is intended to provide the AU with a flexible and robust force to be deployed very rapidly in response to emergency situations, within the framework of the African Peace and Security Architecture,” he said.
Explaining the creation of the ACIRC as a transitional arrangement before the launch of the ASF, Chergui said the proposed African force “cannot continue to be the subject of successive road maps that never come to complete fruition.”
“It cannot continue to be a dream always deferred. We have to be action‐oriented. We have to live up to the expectations we have raised by setting a deadline. Failure is not an option,” he told the two-day meeting that includes African experts on defence, safety and security.
The specialised technical committee is expected to make recommendations on how to best take forward the common endeavour of the AU member states to operationalise the ASF, including its Rapid Deployment Capability, by 2015.
These recommendations will inform the decisions to be taken by the 22nd Ordinary Session of the Assembly of the AU, to be held here 30-31 Jan. 2014.
Meanwhile, a panel of independent experts, led by Prof. Ibrahim Gambari, has produced an assessment report that provides a road-map on what both the member states and the AUC need to do to ensure that the ASF attains its full operational capability by 2015.
According to Chergui, the report has been well received and endorsed by both the meeting of experts held 10 Jan. 2014 and that of the Chiefs of Defence Staff, which took place here two days ago.
The ASF was initially intended to be operational in 2010, but owing to delays, the deadline was pushed to 2015.
“We simply cannot afford another postponement, otherwise the credibility of our collective undertaking will be eroded,” said Chergui.
Following the AU Assembly’s decision in June 2013, AUC Chairperson Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma requested all member states to contribute personnel as well as logistical and financial resources to the ACIRC.
Chergui named the countries which have since made pledges in support of the Capacity as Algeria, Angola, Chad, Liberia, Niger, Senegal, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and South Africa.
Calling for more pledges from other member states, he said: “We need to match our stated commitment to promoting African solutions to African problems with an equal commitment to mobilise more resources from within the continent than we do today, in order to give a concrete meaning to the leadership and ownership we are aspiring to without which our peace efforts cannot be sustained.
“The support of our partners, which we very much welcome, cannot be a substitute to our responsibilities.”
Photo: ISS Africa
