US and African Nations Partner for Military Response to Pandemic

Jennings Carney | 07.08.2010 | 12:01:05545 |

July 2010: Public and private officials gathered in Cotonou, Benin in late June for a table top exercise designed "to collaborate in the assessment and development of national and regional disaster response plans," should a pandemic hit African countries, an Africom press release read. Africom, or the United States African Command is "responsible to the Secretary of Defense for U.S. military relations with 53 African countries." Officials from Africom and other African nations were hosted by the Armed Forces of Benin and supported by the Center for Disaster and Humanitarian Assistance Medicine (CDHAM).

Peter Hubbard, USAID director of the West African Affairs Bureau said, "A good disaster preparedness plan is like a book, with each responsible agency, government ministries, elements of civil society such as NGOs and the private sector, academic institutions, and external assistance organizations, including UN agencies and bilateral donors responsible for a chapter. ... Each chapter needs to fit neatly in a well integrated way with all the others. The job of editing the book is a complicated one, but essential if countries are to mitigate the potential adverse consequences of disasters such as pandemics in order to save lives and livelihoods."

Though not in the lead of operations, the military's role was defined by Erik Threet, the U.S. AFRICOM's Pandemic Response program director who said the military should be able to provide assistance in the form of logistics, transportation, security, engineering, public health, and regional response.