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Dev-News News Desk| East Africa. Urge- DevWire

East African Standby Force Confirms Uganda's Readiness for Regional Peace Operations

KAMPALA, Uganda — 9 August 2026

Uganda's capacity to contribute rapidly deployable military, police and civilian personnel to regional peace-support operations has been assessed by the Eastern Africa Standby Force (EASF) following a three-day verification exercise.

The exercise assessed capabilities pledged by Uganda to the regional standby force, including personnel readiness, interoperability, equipment and operational capacity. Verification activities were conducted at the Uganda Police Force, the International Peace Support Operations Training Centre in Singo and the Uganda Rapid Deployment Capability headquarters in Jinja.

EASF Force Commander Brigadier General Stephen Maina Huria said the exercise provided assurance that Uganda's pledged capabilities could be rapidly deployed in support of peace and stability in Eastern Africa.

Uganda's Rapid Deployment Capability is intended to prepare, deploy, sustain and recover forces for national, regional and continental peace-support and crisis-response operations. According to Brigadier General Emmanuel Kazahura, Commander of the Headquarter Uganda Rapid Deployment Capability (URDC), URDC’s vision is to establish a fully operational force that is well prepared, equipped and supported, and capable of undertaking integrated national, regional and continental peace support and crisis response operations. the Uganda People's Defence Forces, the capability is designed to respond to urgent crises within 14 days while maintaining capacity for broader deployments.

The assessment comes within a regional security architecture that includes Burundi, Comoros, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan and Uganda.

For East Africa's development community, the significance of the exercise lies in the connection between peace, security and development resilience. Conflict and political instability can disrupt trade, displace communities, damage infrastructure and divert public resources away from development priorities.

A functioning regional standby mechanism therefore provides more than a security response. It forms part of the institutional infrastructure needed to manage crises that can have wider humanitarian and economic consequences.

The verification also highlights the importance of interoperability and regional preparedness as East African countries confront increasingly complex security and humanitarian challenges.

Source: Uganda People's Defence Forces / Eastern Africa Standby Force

Dev-News Desk| East Africa. Urge- DevWire