Africa should end its reliance on external donors to finance and support its peace and security efforts, Brig Gen Ronald Rwivanga, Director of the Eastern Africa Standby Force (EASF), has said. He was speaking on August 10 on the sidelines of the 36th Ordinary Policy Organs Meeting of the EASF in Ugandan. The meeting brings together representatives from the force's nine member states—Rwanda, Uganda, Kenya, Burundi, Somalia, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Sudan and Comoros. The Nairobi-based EASF is one of the five regional standby forces established under the African Union’s Peace and Security Architecture to enable the continent to respond rapidly to crises, including peace support operations. Rwivanga said African countries have the capacity to respond to conflicts and humanitarian crises on the continent, but must build stronger internal mechanisms to finance and deploy such responses without depending heavily on external partners. ALSO READ: Gen Rwivanga takes over as director of Eastern African Standby Force “We are at a point in our history that we need to find African solutions to African problems, and the dependency on external donors has to stop,” he said. “We have to build internal resilience; resilience to respond to crises on the continent.” The force has been operational for about two decades and attained full operational readiness in 2014. Rwivanga’s call for greater African self-reliance comes as the EASF continues to strengthen the readiness of forces earmarked for regional deployment. ALSO READ: Gen. Rwivanga briefs Zambian students on African security solutions The organisation periodically conducts verification missions in member states to assess whether their designated standby forces have the personnel, equipment and capabilities required to respond to different scenarios On Monday, the EASF verification team visited Uganda, where it assessed standby elements of both the Uganda People’s Defence Forces and Uganda Police Force (UPDF). “We have assessed their readiness in terms of personnel and equipment, and we are satisfied,” Rwivanga said. He said similar assessments are conducted across the member states, arguing that the region has the military, police and civilian capabilities required for a range of peace and security operations. The EASF’s mandate extends beyond deploying troops after conflict has erupted. Its scenarios include peace support operations, conflict prevention and mediation, as well as responses to severe crises, including genocide situations. Rwivanga stressed that preventing conflict should remain a priority. “It is better to avert conflict than to actually engage in conflict,” he said. He also pointed to the extensive peacekeeping experience of EASF member states as evidence that the region already possesses significant operational capacity. “Beginning with my own country, Rwanda, we have participated in peace operations in Sudan, Darfur, South Sudan, Central African Republic, and even engaged in bilateral engagements in Mozambique, and therefore our operational readiness cannot be questioned.” ALSO READ: Solution to Africa’s problems cannot be imported – Kagame Other EASF countries have similarly contributed troops and other personnel to peace operations across Africa, including Uganda, Kenya, Burundi and Ethiopia. “We cannot question the readiness of our forces,” Rwivanga said. “It is just the political decisions that we must make to respond to different crises as they emerge.” Under his leadership, Rwivanga said particular attention will be given to the EASF’s seventh scenario, which is humanitarian assistance and disaster response. Eastern Africa has increasingly faced climate-related emergencies, including floods, droughts and other disasters that can overwhelm individual countries and trigger wider humanitarian challenges. ALSO READ: RDF’s humanitarian act in Jamaica redefines conventional military service Rwivanga said it would be unacceptable for the region to have a standby mechanism but remain unable to collectively respond when a disaster strikes one or more member states. “It would be unfortunate for us not to be ready to respond to a scenario like that, the seventh scenario, where we find ourselves in our individual states affected by climate-related disasters, and we cannot respond as a collective entity of the Eastern African region,” he said. He pledged to work with national and regional institutions to strengthen the EASF’s capacity to respond to such emergencies. The 36th policy meeting is expected to provide member states with a platform to review strategic and policy issues aimed at making the regional force more responsive to emerging security and humanitarian challenges.
