Eastern Africa Standby Force concludes drills in Sudan

GEBEIT, Sudan, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) -- The Eastern Africa Standby Force (EASF) on Sunday concluded field training exercise, dubbed "Mashariki Salaam II," in Gebeit military base in eastern Sudan.

The drills were launched with participation of combatant units from Sudan, Somalia, Djibouti, Kenya, Uganda, Seychelles, Comoro Islands, Ethiopia, Rwanda and Burundi.

Sudan's Defence Minister Awad ibn Auf, addressing the exercise's closing ceremony, said the EASF was ready to confront terrorist elements that are active in some countries of the region.

"The mechanism of the Eastern Africa multinational forces is in contact with regional and international forces to intervene at all levels," he said.

He went on saying that "some of the eastern Africa countries are still experiencing internal conflicts and terrorist operations. I assure that it is time to face these challenges."

In the meantime, EASF Head of Mission, Ambassador Issimail Chanfi, addressing the ceremony, said that "this exercise has confirmed that the EASF is moving to higher levels of professionalism, and indeed the EASF has the capability to effectively deploy in a real peace operation mission."

He added that the exercise has actualized the capacity for the EASF to operate in a multidimensional and multinational setup.

"Indeed the isolated environment of Gebeit was ideal for maximum concentration, where the levels of cooperation and team spirit among the exercise participants was quite impressive," he noted.

Established in 2004, EASF is one of the five regional multidimensional forces of the African Standby Force, and assigned to enhance peace and security in the eastern African region. Enditem