Ten East African nations along with two European
nations and four international organizations are participating in a week-long multinational
maritime exercise conducted in the waters off of Djibouti, Djibouti; Dar es
Salaam, Tanzania; Mombasa, Kenya; and Victoria, Seychelles. The exercises began
on Monday, November 11, 2013.
Cutlass Express 2013, conducted for the third time,
is one of four African regional express series maritime exercises designed to
improve cooperation, tactical expertise and information sharing practices among
participating nations in order to increase maritime safety and security in the
region. Skills to be tested include: boarding drills, medical casualty drills,
radio communication drills, and information sharing techniques as participants
work through scenarios that mirror real world counter-piracy and
counter-illicit trafficking operations as well as actions taken to deter
illegal fishing.
The exercise serves to demonstrate and test skills
that are developed as part of Africa Partnership Station (APS) and ongoing
efforts to increase maritime domain awareness. Started in 2007, APS is an
international security cooperation initiative, facilitated by U.S. Naval Forces
Africa, aimed at strengthening global maritime partnerships through training
and collaborative activities in order to improve maritime safety and security
in Africa.
During the opening ceremony in Seychelles of the week-long
exercise, Captain Guy Jackson, Cutlass Express 2013 Exercise Director said, “This
year we have 13 nations participating.
Such a high number represents the outstanding cooperation we are seeing
in this region, a cooperation that we hope to see continue to increase as a
result of this exercise,” said Jackson.
Participants in Cutlass Express 2013 include:
Djibouti, Kenya, Uganda, South Africa, Seychelles, Mauritius, Mozambique,
Tanzania, Comoros, Yemen, the Netherlands, Denmark and the U.S. Representatives
from the Eastern Africa Standby Force, NATO, and EU Naval Force.
US Military?
ReplyDeleteWhy engage Uganda?,,, can't you know that they are supporters of Militias like the defunct Congo-DRC based M-23?.
Probably as Uganda has been team working with the incumbent Rwanda Forces on aiding insurgents the Uganda participants should sell or transfer leaf of these skills to Rwandese Forces on Rebels aiding !!!