8/7/2019 Canada's CEFCOM and US AFRICOM Looking to Increase Cooperation

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Canada's CEFCOM and US AFRICOM Looking to Increase Cooperation

STUTTGART, Germany - Canadian Air Force Major General Alain Parent, CanadianExpeditionary Force Command (CEFCOM) deputy commander, visited U.S. Africa Command

Headquarters January 25, 2011 to identify potential areas of partnership on the African continent

following 2011.

AFRICOM's Canadian Forces Liaison Officer, Col. Pierre Lamontagne, explains that "CEFCOM

will drawdown its contingent in Afghanistan from roughly 3,000 to 950 troops in 2011 and isworking to increase the Canadian relationship with U.S. COCOMs [Combatant Commands]

(including recent engagements with Southern Command and Pacific Command).

The Canadian Forces are made up of roughly 70,000 regular military personnel and 30,000reserve military personnel and 28,000 civilian employees. On any given day, about 8,000

Canadian Forces members - one third of our deployable force - are preparing for, engaged in orreturning from an overseas mission. The most important operational deployments are

Afghanistan (3,000), Africa (60) and the Middle East (45). Canadian soldiers are also present inthe Americas as well as in Europe."

This visit was an "effort to assess AFRICOM's vision, mission, goals, priorities, challenges and

initiatives," according to Lamontagne.

Parent's visit is the fourth in a series of senior Canadian military personnel to visits theheadquarters. According to Bradford Sellers, a Capstone Corporation contractor who hosted this

visit on behalf of the AFRICOM Outreach Directorate, "This visit is one in a series ofcooperation-building visits by senior Canadian Forces leadership. These visits, over the past two

years, have consistently demonstrated Canada's strong commitment to actively contributing toAFRICOM programs."

According to Sellers, then CEFCOM Commander, retired LGen Mike Gauthier, visited

AFRICOM in 2008, the Canadian Chief of Defense, Gen. Walter Natynczyk followed him in thespring of 2009, and the current CEFCOM Commander, LGen Marc Lessard, visited in

November 2009.

For continuity Canada posted a liaison officer at AFRICOM in 2009 whose "role is to provide aconduit between AFRICOM and CEFCOM HQ to inform on and resolve operational, planning

or administrative issues and facilitate the achievement of Canadian operational objectives withforces deployed in the AFRICOM Area of Operations," according to Lamontagne.

Canadian forces currently have four contingents supporting missions on the continent:

(1) Sierra Leone. Eight military personnel deployed with the International Military Advisory

Team led by the United Kingdom.

(2) Democratic Republic of the Congo. Eleven military personnel deployed with the UnitedNations Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO).

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(3) Sudan. Thirty military personnel and 11 Canadian civilian police deployed with the UN

Mission in Sudan (UNMIS).

(4) Darfur. Six military personnel and two civilian Canadian police deployed with the UN

Missions in Darfur (UNAMID).

In addition to these contingents the Canadian Forces also have two officers employed with the

International Peace Support Training Centre in Kenya and two others employed with l'Ecole deMaintien de la Paix in Mali.

Canada's activities with African nations are not always limited to the continent. Lamontagne

also shared that, "each year, over 250 candidates from 16 African countries benefit fromlanguage, staff/professional development, and Peace Support Operations training provided

through the Directorate of Military Training Cooperation (DMTC)."

Lamontagne added, "Most of the training takes place in Canada at training institutions such asthe Canadian Land Forces Staff College in Kingston, the Canadian Peace Support Training

Centre in Kingston, the Canadian Forces Language School in St-Jean and the Combat TrainingCentre in Gagetown. Some training also takes place on the African continent."

According to Lamontagne, "Canada is committed to contribute to prosperity, security and

democracy in Africa." A commitment they are clearly demonstrating through actions and notjust words.