African Union might miss Dec deadline to establish standby force: official

African Union (AU) ' s plan to put its standby force into effect by December is set to fall through due to funding problems, a senior official confirmed on Wednesday.

Briefing reporters on the sidelines of an AU meeting in the Zimbabwean resort of Victoria Falls, Head of Peace Support Operations Division at the AU Commission, Sivoyile Bam, indicated that the African Standby Force (ASF) might not be able to reach its full capacity by the end of this year.

"We don't think it will be fully operational, but we think it will be ready. So there will be a capability that will be available," he said.

This will be the fourth time that the continental body has missed the set deadline to create a peacekeeping force on standby in case of emergencies, having first done so in 2008, then 2010 and 2013.

"Well, we are not there 100 percent, we will have to admit. But we think we are getting there. Some of the remaining challenges are issues that member states have to deal with," he said, referring to countries lagging behind in either making pledges for personnel or meeting them, mainly due to financial strain.

However, he said the obstacles are being tackled and stressed that conflicts in Mali and the Central African Republic where France intervened had made it even more urgent for Africa to come up with its own standby force.

Bam said three of the continent's five regional economic commissions had announced their readiness to set up their standby troops, but refused to name them and added that it is still to be verified if they meet certain requirements set by the organization.

The meeting which started on Monday brought together experts on defense, safety and security from more than 50 African nations, who will make recommendations to the 11th Meeting of African Chiefs of Defense Staff and Heads of Safety and Security Services which is to kick off on Thursday.

The latter meeting will discuss the way forward for the establishment of the ASF and its rapid deployment capabilities.

The plan to set up the force was put forward in 2001 in AU's Constitutive Act that gives it the right to intervene in a member state in grave circumstances such as war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity.

It is based on standby arrangements with blocs in its five sub- regions, namely Eastern Africa, Central Africa, Western Africa, Northern Africa and Southern Africa, with member countries contributing troops composed of military, police and civilian units.

Initially, the AU wanted the force to have a strength of 25,000, but this has since been scaled down to 15,000 with the final figure still to be determined.

The force is also in need of equipment including air transportation for them to move from home countries to hot spots, weapons, bathing facilities and food -- which all require huge funding, Bam said.

He revealed that the mission by the ASF would cost about 1 billion U.S. dollars a year if troops are deployed to all the five regions at the same time.

Currently, the AU is running the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), which cost an estimated under 1 billion dollars a year, with the bulk of the funding coming from the United Nations and the European Union, according to the official.

He said the AU is still making efforts to find sources of funding, hinting that some conditions set by current donors are not in the best interest of the organization.

"Some of these (conditions) do not sit well with the needs and the requirements of our forces on the ground. It therefore does create its own constraints," he said.

Reports say more than 90 percent of the AU's peace and security efforts are funded by foreign partners, as its all 53 member states just contribute 4 percent of its 2013 annual budget of about 280 million U.S. dollars. Endi