An African Command Post Exercise (CPX) that held in Addis Ababa, defined ways of readjusting defence mechanisms within the continent.

The complex nature of peace-keeping campaigns in Africa over the years has obliged the Peace and Security Council (PSC) of the African Union, AU, to go back to the drawing board to build the capacity of soldiers and members of the civil society within the continent for peacekeeping efforts. Consequently, 150 top military commanders and staff officers from all the five regions of Africa have since 2008 been brainstorming on the modalities to create a greater awareness on the African Standby Force (ASF) that is a vital arm of the PSC.

AMANI Africa or Peace Africa ended phase one of its capacity building move with a Command Post Exercise (CPX) that took place in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa from October 13-29, featuring military peace-keeping scenes in Carana, one of six nations on a fictitious island of Kisiwa located for the purpose of the exercise off the Horn of Africa. With support from the European Union and based on experiences gathered in other peace missions across the globe, the PSC has been bent on putting in place a fluid link between its Strategic Headquarters at the AU and the Mission Headquarters on the conflict areas for adequate information to permit the Council take informed decisions on any eventual hotspot within the continent. Thus, the CPX marked the end of a two-year process to test the peace-keeping capabilities of the ASF, without which the mission of the PSC will be meaningless.

Given that the AMANI Africa concept is new and the issues old enough, the PSC is out to gradually insert the new African Peace and Security Architecture (APSA) into existing conflicts as well as others that may crop up.

The new way of looking at peace building in Africa intends to count heavily on various regional economic communities (RECs) with the understanding that neighbouring countries to any conflict zone stand a better chance of intervening and bringing about peace in such localities, since neighbours most often suffer most from instability within their vicinities. Also, the utilisation of military resources in any conflict area under the APSA structure will be dependent on the national legislations since the AU has no forces. The presence of soldiers from all the RECs has been an indication of the political will to get the project forward and Sivuyile Bam of the AU Peace Support Operations Division has stated that the next meeting of African Ministers of Defence, Safety and Security will be briefed on recent AMANI Africa activities.

For instance, following early indications by the ASF experts, the town of Douala in Cameroon could likely host the logistics base of the force thanks to the central position of the town in case of military intervention on any part of Africa. The evaluation exercise also envisages having a clear idea about the mode of intervention both by air, land or sea and with what effectiveness.