Exercise Unified Focus 2017 kicks off in Cameroon

100 participants from 10 nations gathered for first Unified Focus exercise.

“Our focus this week is to bring the members of the Multinational Joint Task Force together with non-military organizations and discuss ways to counter the violence and instability caused by Boko Haram and ISIS West Africa in the Lake Chad Basin.” - Brig Gen. Moore

By Capt. Jason Welch , U.S. Army Africa Public Affairs DOUALA NAVAL BASE, Cameroon Apr 25, 2017

View Gallery

Gallery contains 6 images

A military brass band and formations of Cameroonian Armed Forces troops welcomed multinational participants and signaled the opening of the inaugural exercise Unified Focus, April 24.

UF 17 is a weeklong tabletop exercise that brings the military partners of the Lake Chad Basin area’s Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) together to practice joint planning and coordination through a series of scripted vignettes.

“Unified Focus 17 is a brand new exercise,” said U.S. Army Brig. Gen. Kenneth Moore, U.S. Army Africa deputy commander.

“This year almost 100 participants from a total of 10 nations have gathered together,” said Moore.

Military participants came from Cameroon, Chad, Benin, Niger, Nigeria, the Netherlands, Italy, France, the United Kingdom and nonmilitary participants that included representatives from the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the Center for Civilians in Conflict, among others.

“This exercise is the culmination of a year’s worth of work by a dedicated team including three multinational conferences in preparation for the final event,” said U.S. Army Maj. Aaron Smith, from the U.S. Embassy Yaoundé office of security cooperation.

Planning events held throughout the past year brought together both military and civilian planners from partner nations to contribute to the development and the successful start of UF 17.

Throughout the week, participants, organized into multinational working groups, will confront a series of vignettes that present real world scenarios in which the MNJTF would be asked to act. Participants will have to work together, bridging language and cultural barriers, to develop workable solutions that would allow the MNJTF to work with multinational military and non-governmental organizations.

The scenarios all revolve around instability and violence caused by Boko Haram and ISIS West Africa in the Lake Chad Basin.

“It’s a continuation of the dedication of U.S. Army Africa of U.S. Africa Command, our partner nations in the Lake Chad Basin, our European partners, as well as the NGOs and their commitment to this cause,” said Smith.

That cause is the multinational effort against the violent extremist organizations in the Lake Chad Basin including Boko Haram and ISIS West Africa, said Moore.

“Exercise Unified Focus is an AFRICOM exercise fully reinforcing and optimizing the coordination of national and regional efforts for the best results in the fight against terrorism,” said Cameroonian Maj. Gen. Saly Mohamadou, Commander of the 2nd Military Region of Cameroon.

“Interoperability is an important factor in the success of our shared war against terrorism,” said Saly.

Interoperability between the MNJTF partners and their ability to work with nongovernment organizations was key throughout the planning events and will play a large role throughout the week of UF 17.

“We will learn together and discuss methods of providing security to a civilian population while communicating, coordinating, and collaborating with nongovernmental organizations,” said Moore.

“We will look for ways to leverage the capabilities of the MNJTF to support partner militaries and nongovernmental organizations to contain Boko Haram and re-establish state authority in the areas affected in the Lake Chad Basin,” said Moore.

While there are many participants from outside the Lake Chad Basin area, the nations of the MNJTF are the main objective for UF 17 discussions.

“The participation in this exercise of the delegations from Benin, Niger, Nigeria, Chad, and also from the MNJTF, demonstrates the determination of all the members of the Lake Chad Basin nations to fight against terrorism and all forms of violence,” said Saly.

“It’s this same synergy that drove the establishment of the MNJTF,” said Saly.

“Exercise Unified Focus is truly a culmination, a continuation, and also a beginning,” said Smith.

“It’s the beginning of the exercise Unified Focus series. It’s a beginning of us working together on this specific problem set to take and help refine our collective interoperability, our ability to march forward as one against this menace that threatens our collective security,” said Smith.

“And we hope that in the years that follow this exercise will continue to grow and conform itself to the needs of the nations of the Lake Chad Basin,” said Smith.

“As the Ambassador Michael Hoza likes to say, ‘We are together in this fight.’”

Familiar Faces Partner at Multinational Exercise: Unified Focus

Multinational planners put final touches on Exercise Unified Focus 2017 in Cameroon

Cameroon hosts multinational planning event for exercise Unified Focus 2017

U.S. Africa Command 2025 Posture Statement to Senate Armed Services Committee

U.S. Forces conduct strike against ISIS-Somalia

unified focus

Army lawyers provide training on rules for armed conflict at exercise Justified Accord

NAIROBI, Kenya – Among the flurry of tactical live fires and squad movement drills, air ground integration and even the humanitarian initiatives at exercise Justified Accord 2025 (JA25), lies the one thing those who serve in any armed force must follow: The Law. The Law of Armed Conflict, or LOAC, is a key aspect of training for any military. JA25’s academics course aimed at learning from the international legal lessons of previous wars in an effort to reduce the amount of human suffering in future conflicts. “The soldier’s rules are a broad set of rules that we have pulled from the large breadth of international law,” said U.S. Army Maj. Tim Olliges, an operational law attorney assigned to U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF), the lead U.S. Army command and planner of JA25. “The LOAC is extensive and can be complex, so we pull out the ten most critical concepts that every soldier, right down to the private, should know before they go into combat.”

US, Kenya prepare for the unimaginable CBRN threat

NAIROBI, Kenya – Imagine two scenarios. Scenario 1: Dawn breaks over the capital of Kenya. A U.S. diplomat leaves his residence for the embassy. After a 20-minute ride, his car arrives at the gate and he enters. He sits in his office to begin the day when, all of a sudden, he hears an explosion through the open window. It seems far off; it is not a large explosion. He thinks maybe it was just a car accident, but minutes later he smells something bitter in the air. His eyes water, sirens blare and a U.S. Marine Corps security detail enters his office wearing gas masks. They put a mask on him and tell him they must evacuate immediately because a deadly chemical is blowing over the compound. Scenario 2: U.S. intelligence receives credible information that radiological material is being loaded onto a ship in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa. Time is short and no one knows which ship, only that it will embark soon, possibly bound for the hands of violent extremists or other state actors looking to imperil the U.S. homeland. There is no time to send U.S. security forces to intercept the package. Instead, the Kenyan Disaster Response Battalion (DRB) mobilizes and arrives at the port. Using tactics and tools gained from years of training with the United States, they find the ship and the weapon, placed there by a violent extremist organization, and prevent its departure, defeating the threat to America and its citizens. Similar scenarios have happened before in other areas of the world.

36th Annual International Military Chiefs of Chaplains Conference and First Chaplain Africa Forum held in Brussels

The U.S. European Command (EUCOM) and Belgian Ministry of Defence, in partnership with U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and U.S. Indo Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) Chaplain Directorates, hosted the world’s largest annual meeting of senior military religious leaders at the 36th Annual NATO & Partner International Military Chiefs of Chaplains Conference (IMCCC) in Brussels, Belgium, January 27-31, 2025.

Army lawyers provide training on rules for armed conflict at exercise Justified Accord

US, Kenya prepare for the unimaginable CBRN threat

36th Annual International Military Chiefs of Chaplains Conference and First Chaplain Africa Forum held in Brussels

Army lawyers provide training on rules for armed conflict at exercise Justified Accord

US, Kenya prepare for the unimaginable CBRN threat

36th Annual International Military Chiefs of Chaplains Conference and First Chaplain Africa Forum held in Brussels

United States Africa Command

Exercise Unified Focus 2017 kicks off in Cameroon

100 participants from 10 nations gathered for first Unified Focus exercise.