Military official from across the continent have been demonstrating their abilities to ensure peace and security on the continent.

Women and children in Africa who are often trapped in conflict zones can soon wear broad smiles again thanks to military strategies being put in place by some of the finest army brains drawn from across the Continent. Since 2008 the senior military officers have been in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, putting in place strategies that would enable them have a proactive posture to peace building throughout Africa. The idea is for Africans to be able to find solutions to their own problems. It stems from a commitment to peace and security made on May 25, 2005 at the 19^th Session of the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC) during which Heads of State and Government of the PSC’s member States resolved to create a continental peace and security architecture (APSA) to permit the AU meet the aspirations of Africans for sustainable development.
Thus, working under the aegis of the African Union (AU) and in a collaborative effort with the European Union (EU), the soldiers are conducting a continental Command Post Exercise (CPX) codenamed AMANI Africa (“Peace Africa”), AMANI being a Swahili word for peace. The CPX which began on October 13 and ends today, October 29, is aimed at evaluating the effectiveness of the AU Commission, through the Peace Support Operations Division (PSOD), to deploy the African Standby Force (ASF) for an AU mandated multidimensional peace support operations mission. The initiative involves a civilian, Police and military component with five media organs from East, West South, North and Central Africa being invited to join stakeholders and better understand the CPX and the challenges facing the ASF.
For the past two years, the military officers have been undertaking an exercise scenario on a generic Carana country, one of the six nations on a fictitious island of Kisiwa located for the purpose of this exercise off the horn of Africa. At their strategic Headquarters and at the Yezelalem military base down town Addis Ababa, therefore, they have been focusing on a political decision within the AU to seek to intervene, the development of a mission mandate, the development of a mission plan to fulfil the mandate, and the execution of the plan in a Command Post Exercise (AMANI AFRICA), to evaluate the decision making process concerning the resolution of the conflict in Carana where rival factions allowed their difference to degenerate leading to the loss of life and property. While the civilian components of the mission have been preoccupied by the humanitarian situation, the soldiers have been busy maintaining peace with the police taking care of any arrests.
Yesterday October 28, there was another briefing at the PSOD by Mr Bam, an update on the Years of Peace and Security in Africa (YoPS), by Mrs Hayatou-Tall who is the AU PSC focal point, a briefing on the AU election observation by Ms Shumbana Karume who is the Head of Elections Assistance Unit at the AU. Chris Ayangafac spoke on Democracy and Governance while Olabisi briefed the audience on AU’s Humanitarian Action and Assistance.
Cameroon is being represented at the Amani Africa CPX by three Colonels and a Captain. Lt Col. Christophe Touko, a Gendarme Officer has been permanent in the Carana Village as Police Officer of the PSOD. He was joined on October 13 by Col Bakary Bouba of the Garoua Air Base as the Force Generation Officer and Col Chedjou Guillaume while Captain Djeutcheu Fabrice of the Simbock War College in Yaounde is in the medical team of the Amani Africa CPX.