Regional approaches to conflict management in Eastern Africa: a case study of Eastern Africa stanby force (2010 – 2017)

Abstract

From its inception, the African Union (AU) was to be more proactive and stout in dealing with preservation of peace and security than its predecessor, the Organisation of African Unity (OAU). The AU, through its framework of the African Union Peace and Security Architecture (APSA), established the concept of an African Standby Force (ASF) to handle security collectively in the continent. The ASF consists of standby forces from five sub-regional forces based on Regional Economic Communities (RECs) and Regional Mechanisms (RMs). Eastern Africa Standby Force (EASF) is one of the sub-regional forces of the ASF whose objective is to uphold regional peace and security. The EASF attained the status of full operational capability in 2015, declaring to have an operationally ready, multidimensional integrated Standby Force that is ready to address the continent’s security challenges. However, the AU has failed to act through the ASF and regional standby forces when their intervention was needed to maintain regional peace and security. The conflict management strategies have not been effective in addressing and solving various conflicts in the Eastern Africa region. Eastern Africa countries such as Somalia, South Sudan and Burundi are still plagued with conflicts. Therefore, the general objective of this study was to analyze the effectiveness of the EASF in management of conflicts in the Eastern Africa region. The specific objectives of the study were: to analyze the capability gaps in the EASF that affect the management of conflicts in the region, to investigate the impact of EASF operational readiness on the management of regional conflicts, and to investigate challenges of the EASF in the management of regional conflicts. A descriptive survey design was adopted for this study. Secondary data was analyzed from the internet, books, publications from security ministries and books. The study found that there are political, financial, logistical structural capability gaps in the EASF that affect the management of conflicts in the Eastern Africa region. The study found that the EASF is yet to deploy in a peace support operation and therefore it is yet to demonstrate its ability to fulfill its mandate. It was also established that the force faces political and policy challenges, training inadequacy, infrastructure and equipment unavailability, operational and administrative challenges in the management of conflicts in the region. The study recommends the following: the EASF should develop a more structured relationship with partners; member states should show commitment to the organization; the EASF should develop a better logistical organization and that the force standby rotation matrix should be better managed by having actual forces placed on standby during their rotation.