ANTANANARIVO – U.S. Africa Command, in partnership with the Armed Forces of Madagascar, kicked off Africa Endeavor 2016 Aug. 22 in Antananarivo.
In its 10th session, the five-day leader symposium brings together representatives from nearly 40 African nations and several regional and international organizations.
The President of Madagascar Hery Rajaonarimampianina and the AFRICOM Deputy to the Commander for Military Operations Vice Admiral Michael Franken where keynote speakers for the opening ceremony.
“Africa Endeavor is based on the transmission of information,” Rajaonarimampianina said before nearly 400 participants and special guests. “And transmission of information is essential – vital – to the heart of the changing world in which we live today.”
“Communication – be it strategic, operational or tactical – is pivotal to our partnership and mutual understanding,” added Franken. “Even the best equipped and most highly trained force must communicate effectively or else be rendered ineffective.”
During the forum, military leaders will assess current abilities of their forces to communicate during multinational operations and to develop standardized training and procedures to improve future support.
Rajaonarimampianina said the symposium is a place where confidence is born from a “shared vision of the challenges of our time” and allows the group to posture and develop tools that can be paired with determination to respond.
“Through the Africa Endeavor program we have enhanced partner operations by sharing the challenges and best practices of Command, Control, Communications and Computers (C4) during humanitarian assistance and disaster response,” said Army Col. Christopher Eubank, AFRICOM Communications Director. “And produced tools to enable our partnerships like the ‘Africa C4 Handbook’ and the All Partner Network.”
Africa Endeavor, an annual communications and information-sharing event, helps develop multinational communications interoperability for African Union and United Nations mandated peace keeping and disaster response missions in Africa.
Since 2006, more than 2,000 communications specialists from 40 countries, six African regional organizations and six international partner nations have participated in past Africa Endeavor events.