By
By Godfrey Olukya 15-10-2012
East African community states’ troops have today started conducting a joint field training exercise in Rwanda which will go on until October 28th 2012.
The east African community is made up of 5 countries namely Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Rwanda and Burundi. Recently south Sudan, Democratic republic of Congo and Somali applied to join the community and their applications are being studied.
Groups of soldiers from Kenya,Tanzanian, Burundi and Uganda traveled over the weekend to join their Rwandan counterparts for the training.
The exercise is in line with article 125 of the east African community treaty which provides for partner states to cooperate in defense affairs. It includes carrying out joint military training and operations.
One of the officers at the training camp, Captain Deo Akiki said, ‘This is a good exercise for all the participating countries. The aim of the exercise is to train the east African community partner states’ armed forces in planning and conducting of peace support operations, disaster management, counter-terrorism and counter -piracy in order to enhance their capability in combating complex security challenges.’
END