African leaders discuss rapid-deployment emergency force





Lazarus Sauti

African leaders opened talks on Tuesday in South Africa to discuss the formation of a rapid-deployment emergency force to swiftly intervene in crises on the continent.

The idea of the new force is to bridge the gap pending the coming into operation of the long planned fully-fledged peacekeeping African Union’s African Standby Force.

Host South Africa’s President Jacob Zuma said: “The aim is to enable Africa to act swiftly and independently in response to the urgent security challenges this continent faces.

“This decision came about due to the realisation that independent and swift African responses to crises that arise on our continent could not wait while the building blocks of the African Standby Force are carefully being put in place.”

President Zuma goes on to say: “We believe that the time has come that African leaders must be able to act in the interim – swiftly, decisively and when needed.

“We need to ensure that we are not helpless or slow to respond without the help of external partners.

He said the continent can, and has the capacity and means to act swiftly and decisively.

Furthermore, President Zuma expressed hope that by end of this year, there will be “a mechanism that can breathe life into our aspirations for African ownership and leadership in immediately and urgently responding to security challenges faced by this great continent.”

The new force will go by the name the African Capacity for Immediate Response to Crises.

 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Why the hell are men and women prepared to poison themselves for sex?

Are butt-fattening pills real?

Fake news: An insidious problem