Validation Workshop on the African Standby Force Guidelines for AU RECs/RMs on Standby

The African Union following decades of conflict and political challenges that led to insecurity and breakdown of sustainable peace on the continent and following the constituting acts of the African Union of (2000) and that of the Protocol relating to the establishment of Peace and Security Council of (2002). Led to the forming up of  The African Union Standby Force (AUSF) capacitated by troops pledged from Regional Economic Communities (REC’s) own Standby Forces on a rotational basis to the African Union. These Standby Forces are as follows in the English alphabetical order of the agreed rotational order as;

1. Eastern African Standby Force (EASF)
2. Economic Community of East African States (ECCAS)
3. Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS)
4. North African Regional Capability(NARC)
5. Southern African Development Community (SADC)

Following a draft of guidelines on the operability of the Standby Force which has been on rotational basis since January 2017 after a decision by the Specialized Committee on Defence, Safety and Security (STCDSS) ordinary meeting on the 4^th of June 2016. The REC’s/RMs met in Harare from the 30^th of November to the 2^nd of December 2021 to discuss and adopt proposed guidelines for RECs/ REMs on the operability of the Standby Force. Present were representatives from the REC’s/REMs that compose the AUSF with some attending virtually due to the new COVID Omicron variant which made some countries prohibit travel outside their borders, present also was the representative of the Office of the United Nations to the African Union.