Rwanda’s Maj. Gen. Karenzi Karake will be the director for the forthcoming EAC Command Post exercise slated to take place at Rwanda Military Academy, Nyakinama, in October this year.

This was revealed during a planning conference for the exercise that opened in Musanze town on Tuesday.

Karake is also the commandant of the Musanze-based academy.

The four-day meeting is in line with the decision of the EAC Sectoral Council on Cooperation in defence, which approved the roadmap for the exercise that will bring together regional armies.

According to officials, Karake was appointed director of the exercise and he will be deputised by a yet to be named Brigadier General from Tanzania while a Ugandan officer will be the chief umpire of the exercise.

"The purpose of the meeting is to plan and prepare the conduct of the exercise scheduled to take place in October,” said Col Emmanuel Bayingana, Director of Planning at Rwanda Defence Forces (RDF).

Bayingana said that Kenya will provide a force commander while a Burundian officer will be the deputy commander of the combined joint task force.

The preparatory meeting brought together defence liaison officers from all the five EAC member states.

"The October command post exercise will see armed forces of partner states familiarise themselves in areas of peace support, disaster response, counter terrorism and counter piracy,” added Bayingana

Bayingana also said that hosting the command post exercise demonstrates RDF’s commitment to peace and security in the region in its capacity as a security agency that has performed various critical tasks in multinational operations.

"EAC believes that it must have capacity to respond to complex security challenges whenever they may happen among partner states without outside intervention,” explained Bayingana.

The October exercise will be followed by the 2012 EAC field training exercise at Gako military academy.

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