AU Concludes the Evaluation of EASF's Preparedness with Host Nation's Capabilities' Verification

The four-day-long African Union's (AU) verification exercise of EASF's preparednes to intervene and successfully roll out a conflict mitigation programme ended with a resounding note of approval on Thursday, 24th August in Embakasi, Nairobi.

During the evaluation exercise, a team of highly trained experts from diverse Peace Support Operations' (PSO) backgrounds literally placed every facet of the regional peacekeeper under its scrutiny in perhaps one of the most rigorous evaluation exercises EASF has ever undergone. After having given the management a clean bill of health, the team went down to Planning Elements' (PLanElm) operations and explored all mechanisms in place as well as fallback plans against its benchmarks before coming to final conclusions.

On the last day of the evaluation exercise, the AU team picked Kenya's Rapid Deployment Capability (KRDC) as a sample of pledged capabilities from EASF Member States. One of KRDC's facilities is a state of the art Level 2 hospital fully equipped with a theatre where surgeries can be performed should need arise. The second is a Signal Squadron capable of establishing communication links for data and voice using satellites even in the remotest parts of the Eastern Africa region.

The EASF Director, Dr. Abdillahi Omar Bouh, who had accompanied the evaluation team to KRDC Headquarters, thanked the Kenya Defence Forces for unequivocal mission support capabilities which are essential to the success of any mission, in the region and beyond. He expressed his confidence that KRDC's capabilities and diverse contributions from the other 9 EASF Member States are adequate to address any possible conflict scenarios in the region.

 Photo Gallery: AU's Verification of EASF's Capabilities Comes to a Close