Africa’s political inheritance from colonial rule was a mass of artificial “nations” with arbitrarily drawn borders and ethnically diverse populations with few or no historical ties. In the buildup to independence, “nationalism” presented only a façade of unity in the face of the colonial opponent. After independence, that seeming unity could not sustain itself in most parts of the sub-region because the emerging African governments failed to deliver on their promise to improve the lives of their citizens, particularly in terms of employment and social services.

Consequently, a seed of discord was sown between the government and the governed, leading to political instability and civil wars within the African continent.  There was the Hutu-Tutsi ethnic hatred that led to massacre and genocide in the 1990s. In many democratic nations of independent Africa, political parties developed around ethnic identity. As a result, insecure governments constantly feared ethnic conflict or secession. The fear was well founded, as revealed by the 1967 secession of the Igbo homeland called Biafra, from Nigeria, leading to the Nigerian Civil War (1967-1970).

Although a new era of accountable government dawned in Africa in the 1990s, it is still very unstable, and military coup d’états still occur. However, the proliferation of weapons across the continent, economic hardship, and weak government infrastructure have combined to encourage banditry and civil conflicts across Africa. In West Africa, a violent civil war in Liberia in the 1990s spilled over into Sierra Leone, where it continued long after peace returned to Liberia. Even Côte d’Ivoire—for long, a model of stability—has not been immune to violent conflicts.

At least, however, African governments have taken up a collective sense of responsibility and are prepared to intervene on a regional basis to settle disputes or even to restore peace and order.

It was against this backdrop that in the early 1990s, the ECOWAS established an ECOWAS Cease Fire Monitoring Group (ECOMOG) as a collective security outfit which intervened in the Liberian civil war. The Monitoring Group subsequently intervened in Sierra Leone and Guinea Bissau. Based on the experiences garnered from these interventions, ECOMOG was modified with a more defined structure and mission as ECOWAS Standby Force (ESF).

To further consolidate on the gains of the intervention of the ESF, African leaders saw the need for more cohesion among the civilian, military and the police in ensuring total peace and tranquility in the sub-region which could guarantee unfettered development economically, and sustainable democratic governance.

The Special Representative of the President of the ECOWAS Commission and Head of Mission (MICREB), Dr. Istifanus Zabadi, speaking in Benin Republic at the Exercise, COHESION BENIN 2010, said the exercise was a military dimension to reflect on the multidimensional nature of current Peace Support Operations around the world and to test the rapid response capability of the Standby Force to crisis when called upon.

He explained that the ESF comprised pre-determined standby units, police and civilians that were highly trained, equipped and prepared to be deployed as directed in response to crisis or threat to peace and security in the Region.

Zabadi pointed out that the arrangement was in consonance with Article 4 (d) of the Constitutive Act of the African Union (CAAU) which calls for the establishment of a common Defence Security Policy for the African Continent. Within the context of the ECOWAS region, it is covered by article 21 of the ECOWAS Protocol relating to the Mechanism for Conflict Prevention, Management, Resolution, Peacekeeping and Security of December 1999.

The ESF is constituted of a Task Force and a Main Force. The Task Force is composed of 2773 personnel from the pre-determined units including 200 police personnel. It is composed of a Headquarters, two infantry battalions (West and East Battalions) and a Logistics Battalion. On order, the Task Force is to deploy within 30 days and be self sustained for 90 days.

The West Battalion is Senegal led and is composed of Senegal, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Burkina Faso and The Gambia. The Eastern Battalion is led by Nigeria and composed of units from Benin, Niger, Sierra Leone and Togo. The logistics Battalion is a composite Battalion and is led by Mali with the second in command from Nigeria. The battalion is composed of Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal, and Nigeria.

Already, the West Battalion had been evaluated during a joint Senegal/France field training exercise (FTX) tagged Exercise DEGGO in Senegal in December 2007. The Headquarters of ESF Task Force was equally evaluated during a command post exercise at "Ecole Maintain de la Paix Alioune Blondin Beye" in June 2008 in Mali, while the Logistics Battalion was evaluated during an FTX nicknamed Exercise JIGUI 2009, in Burkina Faso in June 2009.

The ECOWAS Standby Force organised the one-week training exercise code-named “Exercise COHESION BENIN 2010 to harmonise the Eastern Battalion of the force led by Nigeria, which Zabadi described as the Eastern battalion evaluation exercise.

He disclosed that the Main Force of the ESF, when fully constituted, would be composed of 3783 all ranks. On order, it will be prepared to deploy within 90 days and be self sustaining for 90 days. In effect, it will complement the ESF TF which serves as a rapid deployment capability outfit.

He said: “The Exercise "COHESION BENIN 2010" is a major military Field Training Exercise (FTX) planned by the BAF in 2010. It eventually became a multinational/multidisciplinary training exercise with the invitation of Eastern Battalion (EASBAT) of ESF Task Force (TF) to participate. The exercise would afford the ECOWAS Commission an opportunity to evaluate the EASBT TF, thus bringing the ESF TF capacity building Roadmap Phase1 to an end” he stated.

The exercise, which took  place in the general area of BOHICON –KETOU-POPE-BONOU, involved a Taskforce articulated around two (02) Battle Groups of infantry, light cavalry, engineers; air force units, naval forces, police, gendarmerie units of Benin Armed Forces (BAF) and ECOWAS Standby Force (ESF).
The troop contributing countries (TTCs) for the exercise included Benin, Nigeria, Sierra-Leone, Togo and elements of the Mission Planning Management Cell (MPMC) and ESF TF Headquarters staff.

However, analysts have continued to express concern over growing insecurity in the West African Sub-region bringing to question the capability of the Standby Force to bring an end to the incessant violence in the region.

But Dr. Zabadi, further explained that the overall aim of the one week exercise was to train the Benin Armed Forces units in field tactics and to evaluate the operational capability of the ESF EASBAT TF and specifically to test the ESF TF concept and standard operating procedure (SOP), as well as to evaluate the deployment of the EASBAT TF in the field and improve inter-operability and intra-operability between subunits and within the various staff cells.

He added that the Exercise, COHESION BENIN 2010, was the last in a series of exercises that would see to the certification of the Task Force (TF) of the, ECOWAS Standby Force (ESF), saying “it is a long and arduous journey that has brought us to this final phase, which I should say is ending successfully”.

He said: “ESF is a multidimensional, multinational and multifunctional arrangement involving the civilian, military and police dimensions. What we are addressing here today is the military dimension. Our leaders in ECOWAS have deliberately phased the development of the ESF to start first with the Rapid Deployment Capability (TF) and then later, the Main Force.

“Therefore, what we are witnessing here as the certification of the Eastern Battalion of TF is the story of a series of exercises spanning over four years.”

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