The vision of achieving a united, peaceful and prosperous Africa entered a new phase on Monday this week, when a large multi-country military exercise kicked off. The Amani Africa Two field training exercise with more than 5,400 troops, police and civilians participating started at the South Africa Army Combat Training Centre in Northern Cape. The exercise finishes on November the 5th and is conducted by the African Union, with the intent of evaluating the state of readiness of the African Standby Force and its Rapid Deployment Capability. The troops are being drilled to be part of the new 25,000-strong multi-national force, which will be mandated to intervene in African countries rocked by genocide, crimes against humanity or war crimes. It is expected to be fully operational by early next year. The force is made up of five brigades formed by Africa's economic groupings including the Economic Community of West Africa States, East African Community, North African Regional Capability, Economic Community of Central African States, and the Southern African Development Community. Its logistics headquarters will be located in the Cameroon city of Douala after an agreement was signed to that effect last week. To help us investigate the reasoning for the event, we have Kwezi Mngibisa: Manager of the African Centre for the Constructive Resolution of Disputes heading of the Peace and Security Unit, which includes the Training for Peace in Africa Program and the African Civil-Military Co-ordination Programme, Gustavo de Carvalho: Senior Researcher: Conflict Management and Peace building at the Institute for Security Studies, in Pretoria, and Brigadier General Xolani Mabanga: Director: Defense Corporate Communications in South Africa :
