Missouri Guardsmen kick off 'Eastern Accord' in Tanzania
September 12, 2012
ARUSHA, Tanzania (Sept. 12, 2012) -- Members from the Missouri Army National Guard's 110th Maneuver Enhancement Brigade and representatives from seven East African countries began at 10-day training exercise in Tanzania, Africa.
Eastern Accord 2012 is a 10-day U.S. Army Africa-sponsored Counter Violent Extremism exercise, which will help build partnerships with USARAF and the East African military forces, is designed to help U.S. Army Africa, or USARAF, and East African participants improve their capability to respond to regional security threats posed by Violent Extremist Groups and to more effectively counter the associated Violent Extremist Ideology.
The objective of the exercise is to build partnerships with Tanzania and other East African military forces to increase interoperability within East Africa, increase African partner nations' ability to counter violent extremism and to increase the readiness of U.S. forces to operate in austere conditions.
The Ministry of Defence and National Service Deputy Permanent Secretary Eng Mussa Ibrahim Iyombe attended the first day of the exercise and stated the importance of the exercise.
"Defeating terrorism and violent extremism requires a long term and collective strategic efforts; and a break with the old patterns," said Iyombe. "It is now high time we fight these old enemies with both a regional and a global reach."
Brig. Gen. James Owens, USARAF deputy commander, emphasized this point.
"Our focus during this exercise is countering violent extremism," said Owens. "However, we must ascribe the proper level of importance to the value if working together - together we will focus on the Army's importance in securing stability and security for our respective nations."
Participants in Eastern Accord 2012 will conduct an academic program from Sept. 6-9 with speakers that include Brig. Gen. (R) Meir Elran, director of Homeland Security Program, Tel Avivi University, Brett Lovegrove, former head of counter-terrorism in the city of London and many other professional speakers. All speakers involved in this exercise bring years of knowledge and experience that will provide valuable information to all who are participating in the exercise.
The culminating event is a Table Top Exercise, which will take place Sept. 10-13. The TTX will apply all lessons learned during the academic portion of the exercise and apply them to the real world efforts for each country in attendance.