The Initial Planning Conference (IPC) for the East African Community (EAC) Command Post Exercise kicked (CPX) off, yesterday, in Musanze District, Northern Province.

The Exercise is scheduled to take place in Rwanda towards the end of the year, and will be preceded by a number of planning conferences all of which will be held in the country, officials have said.

The Conference which is being held a few kilometres from the Rwanda Military Academy in Nyakinama, has brought together over twenty senior military officers from the EAC Partner States.

In an interview with The New Times, Defence and Military Spokesman, Lt Col Jill Rutaremara, said that all the five partner states are being represented in the planning conference for the CPX.

"We are not only planning to host the Command Post Exercise, but also the Field Training Exercise (FTX), so we have all the five Partner States represented in the planning conference for these two important exercises,” Rutaremara said.

The three-day planning exercise is aimed at enhancing the capacity of the EAC Partner States’ Armed Forces to conduct Peace Support Operations and to combat terrorism, piracy and natural disasters.

"Present at the planning exercise are Defence Liaison Officers (DLOs) from the EAC Secretariat representing all the five partner states and other senior officers representing their respective states,” Rutaremara added.

In the meeting of the EAC Sectoral Council on Cooperation in Defence, held in the Tanzania in November 2010, it was decided that a Command Post Exercise EAC be conducted in Rwanda this year.

The purpose of the CPX, to be followed in 2012 by a Field Training Exercise (FTX), also to be held here, is to iron out shortcomings identified in the course of Exercise MLIMA KILIMANJARO that was held in Tanzania in 2009.

At the end of the conference, the officers are expected to conduct a field tour to witness development activities brought about by the existing peace and security the country is experiencing.

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