Malawi to host Sadc military communication exercise

Malawi will in July next year host a military communication exercise called Southern Accord (SA14) that will pool several Southern African countries’ defence forces.

According to Malawi Defence Force’s Colonel George Phiri, who is coordinating the exercise, initial planning for the exercise has started.

Military communications experts from United States of America (USA), Botswana, Swaziland, Zambia and Tanzania met in Lilongwe last week to plan for SA14.

Phiri said in a recent interview that SA14 wants to conduct a command post exercise focused on combined task force response to United Nations or African Union-mandated peace operations with Southern African Development Community (Sadc) troop-contributing countries, USA and other international partners.

“SA14 will draw on lessons from previous Southern Accord events and will exercise partner countries interoperability in response to crises and it will strengthen the defence capabilities of all involved,” said Phiri.

The US Africa Command will sponsor the exercise.