300 Rwandan troops participate in joint military exercise in Uganda

A one-week multi-national military exercise involving Armed Forces, police and civilians from the East African Community (EAC) member states and the U.S. started in Uganda, a military source revealed Thursday in Kigali.

Code-named "Maliza Ugaidi 15" (terminate terrorism 2015), the military exercise, which is aimed at evaluating the operational and logistics readiness of theBattalion of the EAC Stand-by Force, spearheaded by Uganda, is part of the overall preparation for the operationalisation of the African Standby force by December 2015.

The course of this military exercise which is involving the five member countries of the EAC, armed forces are undertaking a multi-dimensional field training exercise involving Rwanda, Uganda, Burundi, Kenya and Tanzania.

The Rwanda contingent, made up of 300 officers and men, has already arrived in Uganda by road for the exercise on Thursday, it said.

It is said that the focus of this regional military gathering is mainly about the preparation of future joint-operations comprising of two modules including Troops field Exercise (TFE) and Command post exercise (CPE), Rwanda Spokesperson's office said in a statement.

Apart from Medical Civic Action Program activities that will continue until the end of the exercise where by, the regional forces will also achieve the construction works for two modern classrooms in Uganda.

Xinhua recalls that the exercise is in line with Article 125 of EAC treaty which provides for partner states to cooperate in defense affairs and the memorandum of understanding framework on defense, which provides that we shall carry out military trainings and operations together.

Similar military exercises have been carried out in the five member states since 2000, it said. Endi