East African security forces host inaugural Special Operations conference

Tanzania People’s Defense Force land forces commander, Major General Salum Kijuu addresses military members from Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Seychelles, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda and the United States during the East Africa Special Operations Conference in Zanzibar, Tanzania recently.  Theme of the conference “Capable Special Operations Forces for the Challenges of Tomorrow.” The TPDF co-hosted the inaugural conference with Special Operations Command Africa, based in Stuttgart, Germany.

The Tanzanian People’s Defense Force and Special Operations Command Africa co-hosted the East Africa Special Operations Conference in Zanzibar, recently with the theme of “Capable Special Operations Forces for the Challenges of Tomorrow” to provide a forum for military members from Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Seychelles, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda and the United States to come together and share unique perspectives in order to build on partnerships that strengthen the collective effort to combat today’s and potential emerging threats.

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Zanzibar, Tanzania

The Tanzania People’s Defense Force and Special Operations Command Africa co-hosted the East Africa Special Operations Conference in Zanzibar, recently to provide a forum for each of the participants to come together and share unique perspectives in order to build on partnerships that strengthen the collective effort to combat shared threats.

The theme of the conference was “Capable Special Operations Forces for the Challenges of Tomorrow.” Participants from Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Seychelles, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda took part in the conference, the first time military representatives of these nations have come together in one setting to discuss lessons learned from each perspective.

According to the U.S. Defense Attaché (DAO) Office in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, the EASOC initiative has provided the DAO with the first real opportunity to engage senior TPDF Special Forces in over a decade and will help solidify this developing relationship.

Across East Africa, the use of Special Operations Forces (SOF) as a means to enhance the capability to protect civilians is a growing trend. Each nation has a unique mission and purpose for its SOF component, and no two look exactly the same. However, SOF in nearly every nation share a common set of experiences as they continue to grow and develop their individual capacities.

SOCAFRICA is the Special Operations component of US Africa Command and works as part of an integrated theater strategy to combat terrorism and advance US Africa Command’s strategic objectives. They are collocated with USAFRICOM in Stuttgart, Germany.

In 2009, President Barack Obama said during a speech in Accra, Ghana that, in the long term, it is Africans who are best able to address African security challenges. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton echoed this comment in 2012, when she said that global problems need African solutions—and African contributions as well.

USAFRICOM's work is guided by U.S. policy, primarily the Presidential Policy Directive for Sub-Saharan Africa, which outlines President Barack Obama's vision on U.S. policy toward Africa and four focus areas: strengthening democratic institutions; promoting economic growth, trade and investment; advancing peace and security; and promoting opportunity and development.

While USAFRICOM's focus is on advancing peace and security, the other three pillars require a secure environment to thrive.

General Carter F. Ham, the commander of USAFRICOM, said in a 2012 speech at Brown University in Providence, RI, that his mission is to advance the United States security interests in Africa, and the best way do that is by strengthening the defense capabilities of African countries so that they are increasingly capable of providing for their own defense and of contributing to regional security and stability.

SOF are often the ideal force for capacity-building missions, primarily because they are configured to employ a low-cost, light footprint and innovative approach as pillars of their operations.

Rear Admiral Brian L. Losey, the commander of SOCAFRICA, said that SOF tools are special tools that encompass unique approaches to problem-solving, including Foreign Internal Defense (FID); a core function of US Special Forces. The purpose of FID is to build the capability of partner nation units to better be able to address security threats.

Non-state actors like al Shabaab and al Qaeda are of particular concern in Africa, according to Christopher Harnisch of the American Enterprise Institute, because they often work across borders. The collaboration of national militaries in general strengthen collective security efforts.  “Partnerships are crucial,” said Rear Admiral Losey.

While each nation has SOF of varying capabilities and history—the island nation of Seychelles established its SOF component in 2009 and has approximately two platoons assigned to it, according to Seychellois Captain Archil Mondon, the acting Special Forces Unit commander—they each shared common challenges.

The primary challenge was adequate numbers of personnel. Each nation articulated this mainly because of the time and resources it takes to produce a special operator. According to Captain John D. Thorleifson, the commander of Naval Special Warfare Unit 10—also based in Stuttgart. However, despite the challenges, there have been demonstrable successes shared by many of the nations participating in the conference.

One example of recent success is in combating piracy. While piracy continues to plague East Africa—in 2009, the waters adjacent to East Africa and the western Indian Ocean achieved the distinction of experiencing the highest rates of piracy and armed robbery at sea of any place in the world—coastal nations are bolstering their capability to defend their coastlines.

Kenya established a Special Boat Unit in 2010 with the help of a U.S. Navy Special Warfare Combatant-craft Crewman team to address coastal security, but with the special aim of addressing piracy. The emerging Seychellois SOF force, which has existed for less than four years, has successfully rescued three vessels from pirates in its short history.

However, the primary example of success is the African Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), a regional peacekeeping mission operated by the African Union with the approval of the United Nations, created by the African Union’s Peace and Security Council in 2007, according to AMISOM. Conference participants Somalia, Uganda, Kenya and Burundi are all actively involved in operations to bring stability to Somalia.

Somalia lost its effective central government in 1991, when a coalition of clans forced the sitting government out of Mogadishu and the Somali state collapsed, according to Lt. Gen. Andrew Gutti, the AMISOM mission commander.  

“SOF all over the world are anticipated to have rapidly deployable capabilities to austere environments with highly specialized personnel able to adapt faster than the enemy in all types of operations,” said Major General Kijuu, of the TPDF. ”Learning is a continuous process, and this is a moment when we can learn from each other. This conference will play a crucial role in fostering our regional special operations forces capabilities as the way to find solutions to address our own problems and challenges.”