GABIRO, Rwanda – More than 1,000 participants from three continents and 26 countries, the International Committee of the Red Cross and other partner organizations gathered for the opening ceremony of exercise Shared Accord 2019 at the Gabiro Training Center in Gabiro, Rwanda, August 14.
Shared Accord 2019, which is scheduled to run until August 28, is focused on bringing together U.S. and Rwandan forces, African partner militaries, allies and international organizations to increase readiness, interoperability, and partnership building between participating nations for peacekeeping operations in the Central African Republic.
Transcript
[Narrator] Military members from across three continents, partner organizations, and local media, gathered for the opening ceremony of Shared Accord 2019 at the Gabiro Combat Training Center in Rwanda. This is the second year Rwanda is co-hosting the exercise with U.S. Army Africa, and the number of participating nations has grown from 15 to 26.
I think it’s very exciting for USARAF Planet Team here. Last year all we had was the medical exercises and the CPX. So this year, we added the FTX to the field training exercise which is nearly doubled and quadrupled the men in here.
Slorra Kaza Neza (audience applauses)
[Narrator] Over one thousand military and government personnel will execute command post, engineering and field training exercises focused on increasing peace-keeping operation capabilities. At the same time, medical readiness training exercise 19-5 is already underway in Congo Wi where medical teams are strengthening their medical treatment skills. The 2 week exercise promotes regional relationships, increases military capability and further cross-training and inter-operability.
It’s all about building enduring relationships so easy. It’s good to come back, year after year and see, not necessarily the same people, but work with the same country. And, I think that, continue to do that, I think our relationships should mature, you know, as we to forward.
[Narrator] Reporting from Gabiro, Rwanda, I’m Army Captain, Brian Andres.