1800 for EAC military drills

Over 1800 military personnel from the East African Community (EAC) are expected to take part in another phase of joint field training exercise set for Rwanda this year.Senior military officers in charge of training from the East African Community (EAC) are in the country as plans for the drills take shape.Kenya’s Col. Frank Ng’anga, the Chairperson of the meeting, could not readily provide budget figures but he told reporters that the week-long main planning conference for the field exercise dubbed Ushirikiano Imara [Swahili for firm cooperation] will tie up the logistics plan and the proposed budget, among other issues.Col. Ng’anga said: “Particularly we are here to fine-tune details of the exercise, like the budgetary aspect, visit the proposed site for the exercise and assess the preparations.”According to Col. Ng’anga, the exercise is likely to involve EAC 1,816 troops, with disaster management and counter piracy as part of the drills.In the previous session on June 21, the consultative committee on cooperation in defence recommended the approval of Gako and Lake Kivu as the sites for FTX Ushirikiano Imara 12.During an earlier planning session, Col. Ng’anga, noted that the latest drills will as well tackle current security threats such as terrorism.No date has been fixed, but Rwanda will host the manoeuvres which are a follow-up to the bloc’s Command Post Exercise (CPX) held in Musanze in October 2011. The Musanze exercise did not involve troops, but command elements training on standard military procedures. Over 300 officers took part in the joint command post exercise which was conducted at the Rwanda Military Academy at Nyakinama, Musanze District.

National

1800 for EAC military drills