ADDIS ABABA (FBC) –The Ethiopia National Defense Force and the U.S. military have launched conducting Justified Accord (JA) 2019, a command headquarter and company-level field training exercise yesterday.
Militaries from Brazil, Burundi, Canada, Djibouti, France, Germany, Italy, Kenya, Netherlands, Rwanda, Somalia, Uganda, UK and participating international organizations such as the UN offices, AU, USAID, the U.S. Institute of Peace and the International Committee of the Red Cross are participating in the training.
JA19 is an exercise designed to enhance the capacity and capability of participating staff and forces in peacekeeping operations in support of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). Approximately 1,100 military and government personnel will participate in the 16-day annual, combined, and joint military exercise.
The exercise will include headquarters staff training, land force maneuvers and culminate with a platoon-level demonstration. The exercise will increase interoperability and help participating military forces enhance readiness and the skills required to support peacekeeping operations and promote regional security.
Fiseha Woldesenbet, Ethiopia’s State Minister of Defense, remarked that the training would help to bring stability in the region. Once the exercise is complete, all exercise participants will return to their home countries and stations.
Ethiopia, a significant contributor of peacekeeping troops to United Nations and African Union (AU) peacekeeping missions on the African continent, previously hosted Justified Accord in 2017.
Concurrent with JA19, the United States Government is also conducting a Medical Readiness Exercise (MEDREX) 19-4 where medical military and civilian personnel from Ethiopia and the US will share and learn from each other’s medical procedures and best practices to build and strengthen their medical treatment capability and capacity.
Through this program, Ethiopian medical professionals can enhance the Ethiopian healthcare system’s ability to deliver effective general surgery and trauma response in support of regional U.N. and African Union missions.
The Ethiopian Herald, July 16/2019
