EQUIPO NIZKOR |
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27Sept04
West African Armies and France Prepare Joint Exercises.
Military officers from 15 west African countries and France on Sept. 27 began preparing for their next joint exercise in the region, due to take place in Benin between Nov. 29 and Dec. 10.
A meeting in Benin’s economic capital Cotonou, gathering dozens of officers from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and France started Sept. 27 and will continue until Oct. 1, the French soldier in charge of planning told Agence France-Presse.
"As well as military officers from the 15 ECOWAS member nations, officers from France and other contributing countries in Europe, Asia and the United States will for five days do the theoretical work on the practical side of the Recamp IV exercise," Colonel Eric Guillemin added.
Previous joint exercises have been held, at France’s initiative, in 1997, 2000 and 2003. The concept of cooperation between French and west African troops has been applied in a real conflict in Ivory Coast, a country divided since September 2002 by civil war.
French and west African soldiers were deployed to patrol cease-ire lines in Ivory Coast between the south, which is in the hands of government forces, and the north, which is controlled by rebels.
A peace pact signed in 2003 to end the war and bring rebels into the Ivorian government has not been fully implemented.
The west African side of the peacekeeping operation has since passed into the hands of the United Nations.
ECOWAS members are Benin, Burkina Faso, Cape Verde, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ivory Coast, Liberia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone and Togo.
[Source: Defense News, Naval Warfare, by Agence France-Presse, Cotonou, 27Sept04]
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