Africa-Press – Botswana. Over 1 000 Botswana Defence Force (BDF) soldiers and their Namibian counterparts will conduct joint exercises next month near Gobabis to enhance their interoperability to effectively deal with evolving challenges and to build their capability to deploy in the region and further afield.
Namibia Defence Force (NDF) Commander, Major General Akofel Nambahu said the peace support operation was designed to enhance both defence forces ability to deal with evolving challenges in the contemporary security environment.
He said the exercise, dubbed Hanganee II, would take place from 15 to 30 June, and that it was reciprocal to Tshwaragano II which was held in Kang in 2018.
He said the exercise would also enable both defence forces to build the capacity to deploy within the region and elsewhere for peace keeping operations.
He also noted that the exercise was aligned with the resolutions of the Namibia-Botswana Joint Permanent Commission on Defence and Security.
Namibia’s defence ministry executive director, Dr Wilhelmine Shivute said the exercise would enhance the military-to-military relations between the two forces and evaluate their rapid deployment capability within the broader Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) peace and security architecture and the stand-by force arrangements.
He said besides the training exercises the two defence forces would also hold sporting and cultural activities, career fairs and outreach programmes. He said that the outreach programmes would include free medical screening and treatment and other basic humanitarian services for communities in the operational zone.
In an interview, BDF Assistant Chief of Staff, Colonel Opasitse Ontse said the joint exercises would enhance the good relationships between the two forces and help them to test their equipment.
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