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U.S. Military Helps Africans Prepare for Natural Disasters

17 August 2005

Ambassador Bellamy speaks at "Golden Spear" dedication in Nairobi

By Jim Fisher-Thompson
Washington File Staff Writer

Washington -- A tsunami like the one that devastated South Asia in December 2004, killing more than 140,000 people, might never hit East Africa, but if it does, 11 African nations will be ready with a coordinated emergency response, worked out in a partnership with the U.S. military called Operation Golden Spear.

Since July 2000, top-ranking military and civilian representatives from Africa and America have met annually to discuss cooperative measures to battle disasters like floods, drought and famine through the Golden Spear project.  The 11 participating African nations are Burundi, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Seychelles, Tanzania and Uganda.

A Golden Spear meeting is taking place August 14-18, in Nairobi, Kenya.

The multilateral effort is funded and coordinated through the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM), responsible for military partnerships with Horn of Africa nations, and the U.S. European Command (EUCOM), responsible for sub-Saharan Africa.  The Department of State and the Washington-based African Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS) also participate in the operation.

Retired Marine General Karl Fulford, who now directs ACSS, joined other top military and civilian officials at the Golden Spear symposium in Nairobi to discuss a range of mutually important issues, such as disaster-response procedures, port-security operations and training opportunities.

Top military officers from CENTCOM and EUCOM and African defense ministers were also briefed on the results of a medical surveillance seminar held at the conference and later participated in a table-top exercise acting out a crisis scenario, sponsored by CENTCOM.

A highlight of the weeklong gathering was the opening of a crisis management center in Nairobi, built with the help of the U.S. government and outfitted with more than $400,000 worth of state-of-the-art communications gear.

U.S. Ambassador to Kenya William Bellamy helped open the Nairobi center, saying the Golden Spear partnership was meant "to better integrate African nations to deal with disaster management, whether those disasters are natural or man-made."

Bellamy touched on a new phase of the partnership, which emphasizes cooperation on counterterrorism, noting: "Africa has had more than its share of disasters.  Sometimes they are unpredictable, sometimes they are preventable.  Whether they are of the natural kind, like the tsunami … or of the man-made kind … [like] the 1998 bombings of the American embassies here in Nairobi and in Dar es Salaam, they cost lives and disrupt our economies."

He added that "while a great deal of hard work has already taken place to get us to this point, the real work begins today as Golden Spear member nations take the lead in manning this center and make it into a vital hub for regional preparation.  Armed with better knowledge and advanced preparation, we can mitigate the effects of future disasters and thus be better able to respond to them when they do strike."

Bellamy assured his audience, "The United States government, through its military, has laid the foundation for Golden Spear and we will continue to be a dependable and strong partner, as our African partners work with each other to become better integrated in their disaster preparedness."

(The Washington File is a product of the Bureau of International Information Programs, U.S. Department of State. Web site: http://usinfo.state.gov)