East Africa: Centre Launches Conflict Prevention Course for East African Countries

NAIROBI (HAN) June 7.2016. Public Diplomacy & Regional Security News. By Desta Gebrehiwot. The Ethiopian Peace Support Training Centre launched a ten-day training on conflict prevention for senior military and civilian personnel drawn from the country and other six east African countries.

Representatives from Ethiopia Tanzania, Burundi, Uganda, Sudan , South Sudan, and Kenya are taking part in the training. The training is financially supported by the government of Japan with a technical assistance from UNDP.

FDRE-PSTC related image.
General Habtamu Tilahun

Opening the training yesterday, Ethiopian Peacekeeping Coordination Centre Head Brigadier General Habtamu Tilahun said that Ethiopia has always been committed to rescue civilians particularly women and children and help peace making and building process in the war-torn countries.

Ethiopia deploys 4,395 uniformed personnel under AMISOM and 8,324 uniformed personnel in UN missions with huge resources. It has been playing a leading role in peace keeping missions.The establishment of the centre is part of the country’s commitment and contribution to UN and AU peacekeeping mission to enhancing regional standby capacity of military, police and civilian peacekeeping experts, according to him.

It is important to equip peacekeepers with the required knowledge, skills and attitude to deliver missions effectively. Training in peacekeeping is a strategic investment rather than administrative task. The effectiveness of missions heavily depends on the capability of peace keeping personnel. Therefore, the training offered by the centre are in line with objectives, he added.

 According to Habtamu, the training is aimed at strengthening peace keeping missions and creating an opportunity to share best experiences. Offering such training for east African countries will have a tremendous role in making missions successful.

The head also commended the Japanese Government and UNDP for their support.

Japanese Ambassador Kazuhiro Suzuki on his part said Ethiopia has become the world’s largest contributor of peacekeeping force to UN and AU missions. Japan is interested to assist Ethiopia’s human resource development whose contribution in conflict prevention is significant.

Peacekeeping missions have become more complicated and require strong management and operation.

Capable human resource is needed to make missions more effective. In this regard, the centre is doing its level best in meeting the international standards. Ambassador Kazuhiro reaffirmed his country’s readiness to provide continued assistance to the centre.

Picture: Kenyan Defense Force Maj. David Nzuve, Africa Contingency Operations Training & Assistance (ACOTA) African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) Force Headquarters training course attendee, briefs command staff officers during a culmination exercise at the International Peace Support Training Center in Nairobi, Kenya, Aug. 26, 2015.


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