US instructors train peacekeeping brigade

US military instructors have begun training some 400 Senegalese soldiers under the African Crisis Response Initiative (ACRI), an official of the US Information Service in Dakar, Senegal, told IRIN. The two-month programme, which began on Monday in Senegal, is being carried out by 35 soldiers, sailors and marines from the US Southern European Task Force along with some 40 instructors from two US civilian contractors. It covers peacekeeping and humanitarian assistance doctrine, individual soldier skills, training in combat support and combat services, staff-officer skills, and the military decision-making process. The programme will also cover computer simulations and the provision of humanitarian aid in war, the USIS official said. It will cost US $2.2 million, of which US $1.2 million will be spent on non-lethal support equipment. The goal of ACRI, initiated by US President Bill Clinton, is to train about 12,000 peacekeepers in 10 to 12 units of battalion size, and two or three brigade-level units, the first of which is the current Senegalese batch. These troops can be called upon at a moment's notice by bodies such as the United Nations, the Economic Community of West African States and the Organisation of African Unity. Over the past two years, the initiative has enabled the training of a battalion each from Benin, Cote d'Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali and Uganda. The US military has also sent instructors to Nigeria and Ghana to train additional battalions for possible duty in Sierra Leone.