About 108 Ugandan soldiers have joined their African colleagues in South Africa for readiness of African Standby Force that is supposed to be fully-fledged by December this year.
A statement issued by the Ugandan army spokesperson, Lt Col Paddy Ankunda says the exercise is to evaluate the state of readiness of the ASF and its Rapid Deployment Capability.
Col Michael Kabango, the commanding the Ugandan Contingent said: “By the close of the exercise, our troops will be better skilled on crises response.
Participating countries include; Uganda, Angola, Botswana, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia and Zimbabwe, Algeria, Burundi, Egypt, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Rwanda.
African Standby Force have five armies from the five African regional economic blocs that are supposed to respond to crises and conflicts in their respective regions.
They are; Eastern African Standby Force (EASF), North African Regional Capacity, Economic Community of West African States Standby Force of West African, Economic Community of Central African States Standby Force and SADC Standby Brigade.
