During the summit of the Blue Economy in Nairobi, the CRIMARIO team led by Admiral François-Régis Cloup-Mandavialle and Glen Forbes, Principal from Oceanus, visited the planning headquarters of the Eastern Africa Standby Force (EASF) in order to explore opportunity of cooperation in the Maritime Domain Awareness field. After a protocolar visit to Doctor Abdillahi Omar Bouh, Director of EASF, the team received a briefing on the role and activities of the EASF and had exchanges with the officers of the maritime coordination center.
Fully operational since 2015, the EASF is playing a growing role in the maintenance of peace and security in the Eastern Africa region and the Horn of Africa notably for conflict prevention (military advice, observer mission, fact finding mission). The Force is established under the Africa Peace and Security Architecture, APSA, and apart from Sudan, Ethiopia, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi includes members States that are long-standing partners of the CRIMARIO project, that is to say Djibouti, Somalia, Kenya, Seychelles and the Comoros.
The strong presence of coastal and island countries explains the interest of the EASF for maritime security and the recent creation of a maritime coordination center. Thus, in line with the 2050 Africa’s Integrated Maritime Strategy, the Force is willing to enhance maritime safety and security in the Eastern Africa region by developing several initiatives: conducting regional scenario based on maritime analysis to determine the maritime force requirement, establishing a maritime network at the national and regional level to increase exchange of information, strengthening partnership to address common challenges.
At the end of this exploratory visit, the CRIMARIO team undertook to maintain contact with the Maritime Coordination Center to study how to answer to its needs in the field of formation and training within its resources and capabilities.