Kampala, Uganda | THE INDEPENDENT | Lt. Gen. Wilson Mbadi, the Deputy Chief of Defense Forces-CDF has flagged off a delegation of Ugandans to attend the East African Community command post exercise code named “Ushirikiano Imara” in Tanzania.
The team is comprised of 163 Uganda People’s Defense Forces soldiers, 37 Police officers, two officers from Uganda Prison Services and 15 civilians.
The Ugandan delegation will depart for Tanzanian on Thursday morning from the Junior Command Staff College in Jinja district. They will join participants from Tanzania, Kenya, Burundi and Rwanda. South Sudan will send observers.
The annual exercise that is scheduled to start on November 03rd, 2018 in Tanga will include field training on combating terrorism, piracy and disaster preparedness.
In his speech, Mbadi said the exercise will help EAC member states to tighten their grip on terrorism, piracy, and readiness to address disaster outbreaks.
The UPDF Chief of Training, Brig. Willis Byarugaba challenged the participants to network and learn new tactics from their counterparts.
“I warn you against indiscipline and I charge all you to acquire contacts and learn new things from your other colleagues of the different member states which will not only add value to you as individuals but the whole force at large,” Byarugaba said.
The Uganda Prison Spokesperson, Frank Baine said, “Security threats in our region call for joint cooperation of all stakeholders because each element in the force has a role to play therefore as colleagues in uniform, these joint exercises are learning points for us.”
“Ushirikiano imara” a Swahili term meaning strong partnership is a rotational field and board room exercise conducted in different EAC member states annually. Uganda will host the same exercise next year.
***
URN