African Unification Front
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Draft PAP Bill on the African Union Defense Forces
Mosiuoa Lekota speech on Future of African Defense
Kwame Addo-Kufuor remarks on African High Command
Biography of an African General Officer
AUF-AU Military Participation
Military Integration Activities
CONCEPT PAPER ON AFRICAN MILITARY STRUCTURE
PROPOSED DEFENSE REFORMS IN THE AFRICAN UNION
The AUF plan calls for the creation of an all-African defense force, by immediate designation of all existing armies as units of a single integrated peacekeeping force under the command of the African Chiefs of Defense Staff. Subsequently, the activities of the all military units and commands will be geared towards operational integration, through joint training, sharing facilities, and learning to work under a single command structure.
The plan for the creation of an All-African army to replace the armed forces of the states in Africa dates back to the earliest efforts to liberate Africa from slavery and colonial occupation. Article 2 of the famous January 1961 Africa Charter of Casablanca authorised the establishment of the Joint African High Command, which was subsequently renamed the African Chiefs of Defense Staff. The functions and duties of the ACDS need to be formalised by the Pan African Parliament in order for military integration to be effective and productive.
The PAP must provide a dispensation to the armies from their oaths to the states or their presidents, and require them to take an oath to defend order in the African Union and Pan Africanism, and to defend the sovereignty of the Pan African Parliament and all its legal and treaty obligations.
Over the years several African general officers have accumulated experience in commanding an All-African armed force for extended periods. These joint command opportunities have arisen as a result of peacekeeping operations by ECOMOG (in Sierra Leone), SADC (Lesotho and Burundi), JMC and MONUC (DRC), and MCC (Eritrea-Ethiopia).
In the event that the African Defense Force is established, the President of the Pan African Parliament must be the one to nominate/appoint the general commanders from among the African Chiefs of Defense Staff. It is preferable that general commanders with extended peacekeeping experience, who have been in charge of joint-African forces, should be considered for overall command.
Some commanders with extended AU peacekeeping experience to choose from include General Mountaga Diallo, Brigadier General Augustine Blay, Brigadier General Njuki Mwaniki and Brigadier-General Elliot Kamteni, as well as their subordinate officers of various ranks serving in the peace missions in the Great Lakes Region and North East Africa. There are also several general officers with experience in ECOMOG, AMIB and the MCC.
The African Union currently has in excess of 3.5 million men and women under arms serving in regular armies, militias, and guerilla forces. The constituent republics of Egypt, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Sudan account for 1.5 million troops, not including non-statutory forces active in those republics. Reduction of overall military spending is a necessity. The integration of Africa's armies and general staffs will result in better regulation of conflict in the African Union.
The constituent republics of the African Union spend in excess of 20 billion dollars annually on the military. Nearly 20% of the African people are directly affected by war. The reduction of military spending is a priority in the efforts to end conflicts and for long-term stability and economic growth. The funds for the new intergrated force will be realised from savings in troop reduction, in reduced spending on equipment, as well as in rationalization of defence infrastracture.
The AUF has drawn up a preliminary defense force structure consistent with AUF Defence Policy. The draft is a useful guide for African policy makers and commanders involved efforts to integrate the African Union. The Army exists to deter war or, if deterrence fails, to protect civilians, and to separate combatants in peacekeeping missions.
Proposed Structure of the African Defence Force
1 Size and Integration of Active Force
1.1 Total Number of Men and Women: 1,000,000
1.2 Total Number of Divisions: 100
1.3 Standardization of Army Doctrine Manuals (procedures and training principles), and training rotations to familiarize troops with all geographical regions of the African Union. For instance, the standardization of military organization symbols for use on maps and other documents is important for purposes of monitoring and evaluation of conflict resolution efforts by both military and civil authorities.
The standardization of Army Regulations, Soldiers Manuals, Field Manuals, drill books, rank insignia and uniforms will best be achieved by the setting up of a committee consisting of five senior officers from different states, who have varied regional experience, to review all current manuals used by different African armies and to merge them, or draw up new ones, or approve the adoption of a single model based on the army of any country of their choice (including one outside Africa).
Already at Senior and General Staff level, Africa has a standardized system that is coordinated through general staff colleges, such as Karen Military Academy (Kenya), or Antsirabe Military Academy (Madagscar) whose most famous graduates include Thomas Sankara, and Daouda Mallam Wanke of Niger. Other Pan African military training facilities are located in Nigeria, Egypt, South Africa, Libya, Algeria, Morocco, Ghana, Senegal, and Tanzania. They are responsible for training senior army commanders from all over Africa.
There are few pan African schools that cater for the needs for infantry level and junior staff level training. Many schools for Pan African military training were closed with the fall of apartheid in the early 1990s. Up to that time Africans interested in fighting the colonial regime in occupied Africa could go to training camps in Mozambique, Tanzania and other Frontline States. Moreover, many fighters from Namibia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Mozambique, Angola, and Giunea (states where the colonial occupation lasted the longest) were given scholarships to train anywhere in Africa.
2. Annual Defense Budget:
2.1 Total Military Budget: US$ 8,000,000,000 (1% of AU's GDP)
(Three states, Egypt, Libya and Sudan, spend US$4 billion annually. The proposed African Army will be more effective and less costly than maintaining over 50 armies that are currently in place).
2.3 The total budget accounts for:
(a) Bases & Soldiers' Housing & Utilities
(b) Training and Education
(c) Military Hardware and Maintenance
(d) Payroll
(e) Food and Clothing
(f) Operations and Administration
3. Administrative Structure of African Defense
The African Chiefs of Defense Staff (ACDS), must consist only of respected African military commanders of high distinction, who have broad peacekeeping and conflict mediation experience, as well as international experience and a deep appreciation of African history.
The members of the ACDS are proposed by the President of the Pan African Parliament, and by the heads of constituent states of the African Union, by the Commission of the African Union, and by African civil society leaders (including dissident political groups with non-statutory armed forces). They are approved by the relevant committees of the Pan African Parliament.
Functions of the ACDS include addressing Africa's conflict resolution concerns through mediation and liaison work. The ACDS implements policies on peacekeeping and peacebuilding, conflict prevention and resolution, integration of the African military, and the defense of the African Union. The ACDS has the authority to deploy or withdraw troops in the enforcement of African and international law, and in accordance with binding directions of the Pan African Parliament.
4. Services of the Army:
(a) Land Forces
(b) Special Forces
(c) Air Defense Forces
(d) Naval Defense Forces
(e) Military Districts
4.1 Operational General Command
Functions of the Chief of General Staff
The Chair of the ACDS is effectively the Commander in Chief of the African Union Defense Forces. The Chief of General Staff is his second in Command.
The functions of the C-in-C and the CGS include:
[1] Contribution to preserving the peace, security and territorial integrity of the African Union.
[2] Preparation and finalisation of defence plans. Recommend the forces required to promote stability, contribute to crisis management and provide for effective defence. Take all military measures within their capability and authority to demonstrate the solidarity of the African Union and the preparedness to maintain its integrity, to safeguard freedom and the economic lifelines of the Union, and to preserve or restore the security of all areas in Africa.
[3] Organising, training, equipping, maintaining and sustaining the forces.
[4] Conduct of exercises and evaluations to ensure that the forces knit together into a unified and capable force for the collective defence of African lives and territory.
[5] Control of all land, sea and air operations of the African Defense Forces.
4.2 Military Districts Administration
(a) Is responsible for support to the operating forces in the form of: :
[i] Procurement, Storage & Distribution of Supplies (food, fuel, munitions)
[ii] Military Courts, Internal Affairs & Intelligence Support
[iii] Payroll & Records (pensions, family welfare, housing)
[iv] Civil-Military relations
[v] Base, Facilities & Machinery Maintenance & Repair, Communications
[vi] Reserves Administration, Recruitment & Training/Simulations
[vii] Military Colleges (Research and Development)
[viii] Non-Combatant Army and Civilian Personnel
[ix] Districts Administrative Staffs
[x] Medical Facilities
(b) General activities of the Military District Administration include monitoring the numbers of recruits, soldiers on active service, soldiers on permanent leave, and soldiers in reserve. The district administration organises recruitment of new soldiers, monitors soldiers in training, soldiers on permanent leave, and soldiers in reserve. It handles the applications of soldiers on active service, soldiers on permanent leave for alternative service and deferred date of call-up to basic or alternative service, soldiers in reserve to postpone the military exercises, ensures resolution of requests of citizens to enter the army, handles cases of loss of identification material, and releases soldiers from the army after they have served their military duty. The DMA completes tasks concerning care of military pensioners in the area of providing help when claiming their rights and entitlements.
Organized as a headquarters element, Military District Administration has no war fighting units permanently assigned to it. Instead, all Armed Services provide their own component commands, which make up African Defence Force's primary war fighting and engagement organizations.
(c) List of Military Districts and proposed Headquarters
[i] Eastern District - Addis Ababa
[ii] Western District - Timbuctu
[iii] Northern District - Tamanrasset
[iv] South Eastern District - Antsirabe
[v] Southern District - Pretoria
The location of the headquarters are choosen for their access to military facilities, transport, and significant topological and geographical advantages.
(d) Rationale for the Military Districts
Military districts allow for the orderly planning and apportionment of military resources (infrastructure, training, and orderly command) rationally across the African Union.
This district configuration conforms to the requirements of African Military Doctrine, which addresses the African Union's organizational and equipment capabalities. For example, the military districts account for the need for positional defense of strategic areas, while at the same time taking into consideration potentials for manuevre defense in other areas, as well as consideration of other pertinent African defense concerns.
Military Districts Chain of Command
[In place of Joint Military Commission, read "African Chiefs of Defense Staff"]
4.3 Special Forces - 5 Divisions
[i] Military Intelligence
[ii] Diversionary & Special Operations Forces
4.4 Air Defense Forces - 15 Divisions
[i] Territorial Air Defense
[ii] Strategic Air Force
[iii] Transport Aviation
Air Defense Force Chain of Command
[In place of Joint Military Commission, read "African Chiefs of Defense Staff"]
4.5 Naval Defense Forces - 18 Divisions
[i] Surface Ships
[ii] Submarines
[iii] Naval Aviation
[iv] Marine Infantry
[v] Fleet Administation (Oversees 5 Fleets)
Naval Defense Chain of Command
[In place of Joint Military Commission, read "African Chiefs of Defense Staff"]
4.6 Land Forces - 60 Divisions
[i] Motor-Rifle Forces
[ii] Tank Forces
[iii] Rocket, Artillery and Anti-Aircraft Forces
[iv] Airborne Troops
[v] Fortified Area and Coastal Defense Forces
Land Forces Chain of Command
[In place of Joint Military Commission, read "African Chiefs of Defense Staff"]
5. Integration of Forces
The amalgamation of troops must be at subdivisional level. Each army division will consist of coherent combat teams (regiments, battalions, companies and platoons) from all regions of the African Union, including the African Diaspora.
6. Equipment
The African Union must aim to be self-sufficient in the production of military equipment.
7. Operational Strategy and Tactics
The African Union must pursue military theory and strategy consistent with Pan Africanism...the support of African unity and sovereignty. A more comprehensive treatment of strategic imperatives for the armed forces are addressed elsewhere on the AUF website.
Military Doctrine:
[i] Army commanders plan alternate holding and staging for operations, with adequate liaison with the relevant civilian authorities.
[ii] The services (land forces, special forces, naval defense forces, etc) are "Not-Forced Holding" Commands. A service's internal cohesion and independence is secondary to the needs of a front commander (peacekeeping force unit commander). This means that an Operational Front Commander (peacekeeping force unit commander) requests troops and equipment from any of the services as needed. The services requested comply if they have what the Operational Front Commander (peacekeeping force unit commander or the Mission Commander) requires. In otherwords, all services are reserves forces for the operational fronts.
Obviously all services' general and senior staffs must be involved in the pre-operation build-up and in the planning of large-scale or critical and significant operations.
END
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