The United States plans to partner with Senegal, Ghana, Ethiopia, Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda to develop rapid response forces. Those forces would be ready to deploy as part of United Nations' or African Union missions.
We plan to spend 3-5 years at a cost of $110 million per year to set up an intervention brigade to handle African crises.
It would likely rely on Western airlift and logistics, however.
Since the Obama administration is announcing it during a week of focus on the nation of Africa (hey, the vice president erased the borders so arbitrarily drawn by earlier men), this must be new!
Well, not so much.
I noted this article a few years ago on the same idea:
Colonel Andy Mason, a veteran of peacekeeping in Zimbabwe and Congo, says that Eastern Brigade, drawn from east African armies led by Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Rwanda, may start operating by 2012 at a cost over five years of $500m. It will be trained to be ready to send 6,000 troops to a trouble spot within 90 days. The Africans want rich countries to provide the aircraft to get them there, though judging by the UN in Darfur that may be wishful thinking.
So we're building on a British plan at least in the east.
I know I've read about our plan to set up regional African intervention brigades around the continent for this purpose but can't find any post on it. I would have sworn I'd blogged it.
Anyway, I'm not impressed with the "exclusive" news scoop on this plan.
