The United States military and the Ethiopia National Defense Force, militaries from the nations of Brazil, Burundi, Canada, Djibouti, France, Germany, Italy, Kenya, Netherlands, Rwanda, Somalia, Uganda, United Kingdom are set to conduct an annual military exercise.
Labeled Justified Accord (JA) 2019, a command headquarters and company-level field training exercise, will take place in Ethiopia for two weeks from July 15-31, 2019. The United States Government will be infusing nearly $6 million directly to the Ethiopian economy because of these exercises, according to the press statement of the U.S. Embassy in Addis Ababa.
The participants also include international organizations such as the United Nations offices, African Union, the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. Institute of Peace and the International Committee of the Red Cross. JA19 is an exercise designed to enhance the capacity and capability of participating staff and forces in peacekeeping operations in support of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM).
Approximately 1,100 military and government personnel will participate in the annual, combined, joint military exercise. Ethiopia, a significant contributor of peacekeeping troops to United Nations and African Union peacekeeping missions on the African continent, previously hosted Justified Accord in 2017.
The exercise will include headquarters staff training, land force maneuvers and culminate with a platoon-level demonstration. This exercise will increase interoperability and help participating military forces enhance readiness and the skills required to support peacekeeping operations and promote regional security.
Once the exercise is complete, all exercise participants will return to their home countries and stations. Concurrent with JA19, the United States Government is also conducting a Medical Readiness Exercise (MEDREX) 19-4 where medical military and civilian personnel from Ethiopia and the United States will share and learn from each other’s medical procedures and best practices to build and strengthen their medical treatment capability and capacity.
The statement indicated that through this program, Ethiopian medical professionals can enhance the Ethiopian healthcare system’s ability to deliver effective general surgery and trauma response in support of regional U.N. and African Union missions.