Pretoria – The South African National Defence Force (SANDF) is conducting a joint and multinational peace support operation and humanitarian relief exercise with the US Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (Setaf-Af) of the US Armed Forces.
The exercise will be conducted from Tuesday until the end of the month in and around Richards Bay in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN).
“This came about as a result of bilateral Defence Force Committee discussions that originated in 2009, and was approved by the Military Command Council (MCC) in 2010,” the SANDF said.
Exercise Shared Accord 2022 (Ex Shared Accord 22) is the fourth exercise of this nature to be planned and executed in South Africa, with previous exercises that took place in 2011, 2013 and 2017.
The last exercise was conducted in the Northern Cape at the SA Army Combat Training Centre (CTC) Lohatla, and the following scheduled exercise was to be executed in 2020.
Due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, all exercises were suspended in March 2020.
“The aim of Ex Shared Accord 22 is to improve bilateral military inter-operability, to conduct maritime force protection operations against conventional and asymmetric threats at sea and in harbours, conduct air support operations to peace support operations for landward forces, and to exercise the provision of medical assistance and humanitarian relief to own forces and the local population,” the SANDF said.
One of the biggest activities that will be taking place during Ex Shared Accord 22, includes a community outreach programme spearheaded by the SANDF’s South African Military Health Service (SAMHS) in partnership with the KZN provincial department of health which started on Tuesday and will run until July 28.
The programme will provide primary health care, dental and veterinary services in a number of areas including Richards Bay and Empangeni in the uMhlathuze Local Municipality, as well as in Mtubatuba in the Mtubatuba Local Municipality.
IOL