Cairo, Egypt - CCCPA hosted a series of virtual training courses during October and November 2021, in cooperation with the Executive Secretariat of the North African Regional Capability (NARC) affiliated with the African Standby Force (ASF).

The series of training courses consisted of (i) a pre-deployment training (3 - 4 October); (ii) a course on the protection of vulnerable populations in conflict areas (5 October); (iii) a foundational course for the military component and civil-military cooperation (24 October); (iv) a training course on the duties of the police component in African Peace Support Operations (25 - 26 October)--in collaboration with the Egyptian Peacekeeping Operations Training Center affiliated with the Egyptian Ministry of Interior; and lastly, (v) a training course on conflict resolution and mediation (30 November - 1 December).

The five training courses aimed to implement the continental training directives and recommendations of the ASF Training Implementation Workshop organized by the African Union Commission (AUC) in November 2020.

CCCPA Director-General Ambassador Ahmed Abdel-Latif stated that these courses are part of the continued remarkable collaboration between CCCPA and NARC that began in 2013. Up until 2015, 16 training courses had been conducted on several topics related to media in peace support operations; international human rights law; international humanitarian law in peace support operations; and disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration. He added that CCCPA, at the invitation of the African Union, takes part in the ASF Training Implementation Workshop each year in order to further develop the training directives. Ambassador Abdel-Latif added that CCCPA looks forward to further cooperation with NARC, in line with the efforts exerted by Egypt to enhance the preparedness and realize the full operationalization of the three NARC components (military, police, and civilian).

Brigadier General Mohamed Ghouma, Chief of Planning Element at NARC, praised CCCPA’s efforts towards operationalizing the components of the capability and enhancing their potential role. He also commended the Center’s endeavors in implementing the recommendations of the periodical meetings of the AUC, especially the NARC training plan.

NARC was created as a regional capability to enable North African countries to contribute to the building-up process and operationalization of the ASF. In addition to NARC, the ASF consists of four other Regional Standby Capabilities: The East African Standby Force (EASF); the ECOWAS Standby Force (ESF); the SADC Standby Force (SSF); and the Economic Community of Central African States (ECCAS Standby Force or FOMAC).

The training comes as part of the project “Enhancing Peace, Security, and Stability in Africa”, funded by the Government of Japan, through UNDP.