SADC military exercise, �Blue Okavango�, set for July

Boniface Keakabetse | Wednesday May 27, 2015 15:38

This was revealed during the final planning conference for the forthcoming SADC multinational aviation exercise, billed for the Ngamiland district, which was held on Monday at Maun lodge.

SADC military aviation permanent committee delegations from 11 of the 15 member states attended the conference.

The contributions in equipment and human resources of member countries that will be used for the exercise will be confirmed during the planning conference, which ends today.

The high level multinational exercise which is scheduled for July, 20-25, 2015, is aimed at inculcating interoperability in humanitarian relief operations between SADC Air forces.

In his opening remarks, Botswana Defence Force (BDF), Deputy Air Arm Commander, Deputy Brigadier, Seleka Phatshwane,. said 400 aircraft and 887 personnel from SADC will take part in the operation.

“ Member states continue not only to send delegates  to attend but have also made pledges and remained positive in their contributions towards the establishment of a sound plan for the exercise.

“It is my view that all pledges and contributions done in the past two conferences were done in a free and unbiased environment that must prevail as we finalise on our plans in the coming days,” he said. 

Phatshwane also said that some of the issues to be finalised during this conference include manning and equipment lists, exercise concept and the legal parameters thorough the status of force agreements. He explained that Exercise Blue Okavango is a sequel to Exercise Blue Cluster that was held at South Africa in 2011 and Blue Zambezi that was held at Angola in 2013. He noted that the Botswana edition of the Exercise is called Blue Okavango and is envisaged to enhance the SADC air forces capacity to plan and conduct combined joint operations, humanitarian support and disaster relief initiatives.

Meanwhile, when briefing the media, Colonel Segolame Sebenyane of the BDF said that through the exercise there will be a massive airlifting of goods to the communities in the Okavango Sub District. He also said that the Okavango Sub District was chosen for this mock exercise as it is prone to floods.

“The exercise will take in July at the time the Okavango River normally bursts its banks causing disasters at it floods. Their goods to be airlifted will be for the Ministry of Local Government are intended for distribution to schools, clinics and the entire community,” he said.

Sebenyane said that the requisite preparations such as the Environmental Impact Assessments (EIAs) have been concluded so the exercise does not anyhow pollute the environment.

He added that local businesses in the district will benefit from the exercise while diseases’ tests exercises will be conducted for the Okavango communities as part of SADC team social responsibility.

“We plan to bring health services such as diseases testing to the communities where we will be conducting the exercise,” he said.