African Standby Force Case Study

Background of the African Standby Force (ASF)
Currently, the African continent leads other continents with the United Nations peacekeepers deployed worldwide in the African countries. Interestingly, African countries such as Ethiopia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Kenya Uganda, and others have contributed immensely to the United Nations (UN) and the African Union (AU) missions in the world. It is surprisingly that the continent that has such security challenges also contributes the big number of troops to the UN and the AU. However, this world’s contribution does not prevent the continent to continue facing several crises than other continents in the world. The continent has faced numerous civil conflicts and repeated human rights violations. As
This security architecture was proposed in 2003 to address African collective security. The APSA comprises collective security institutions which are the AU Peace and Security Council (PSC), the Continental Early Warning system (CEWS), the Preeminent Advisory Envoys (Panel of Wise), a financing mechanism (African Peace Fund), and the African Standby Force (ASF). These institutions were established by the AU for prevention, management and resolution of conflicts in African continent. Hence, the ASF is the right and reliable security mechanism of the AU to provide a continental rapid-deployment capability (RDC) for African crises. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the challenges and prospects for the future of the African Standby Force in African crises, and recommend the way forward of the force. The paper discusses the force structure and capabilities, challenges, and prospects. The paper further examines ASF capabilities and progress in relation to the challenges, and the role the AU, Regional Economic Communities/Regional Mechanisms as well as the ASF friends and partners should play to make the force operational and effective to deliver its mandate. Finally, the paper recommends
These include terrorist threats, intrastate conflicts as a result of political or social issues as well as proxy wars among African countries. Currently, there are several security threats that need a significant attention of the AU and the AU member states. These range from al-Shabaab and Boko Haram terrorists as well as terrorists in Maghreb and Sahel regions, besides conflicts in Darfur, South Sudan, the Central African Republic, Mali and Libya. There are other transregional threat such as human trafficking, piracy, and drugs and small arms trafficking. These security threats compel the African continent to take a collective lead and responsibility to avert such threats. Therefore, having a collective security mechanism will address these threats. These also give the African continent the right for intervention and Responsibility to Protect (R2P), as the United Nations General Assembly endorsed the concept in 2005 during summit meeting on its 60th anniversary. It is on this idea that the ASF was established as a continental rapid-deployment capability (RDC) for African crises in 2003 to provide timely and efficient