Editorial
The Need for an African Rapid Reaction Force
African Union Peacekeepers in Dafur, Sudan. PHOTO/Abd Raouf/AP
In the last decade, the African continent has experience dramatic political, economic and social progress. Thus changing the well worn and tired narrative of a ravaged continent in perpetual conflict and therefore, not safe for investment.
However, this progress may be greatly be impeded if the African Union (AU) cannot better manage conflicts on the continent without external intervention.
External intervention only works to suit the interests of the external actors involved, once those interests are no longer threatened, they usually leave Africans to fend for themselves – usually in conditions far worse.
In 1997, African chiefs of defense staff at a conference in Harare, Zimbabwe proposed a continental rapid reaction force that would be able to intervene in the continent’s trouble spots. It was a concept first envisioned by the former Ghana President Kwame Nkrumah in 1963. But, it was after the failure of the Organization of African Unity to muster the necessary military force to intervene during the genocide in Rwanda that the idea gained momentum.
In 2002, the African Union adopted the African Standby Force (ASF) concept.
The standby force will include the following components:
– a civilian component that includes a police force;
– and a Rapid Deployment Capability (RDC) component.
