Peacekeeping Battalion
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Cameroon’s First Peacekeeping Battalion
On December 12 Ambassador Garvey and Mr. Jean Baptiste Bokam, Cameroon’s Secretary of State at the Ministry of Defense in charge of the National Gendarmerie, presided over a ceremony in Ngaoundere honoring Cameroon’s first 800-man peacekeeping battalion and Cameroon’s new Peacekeeping Training Instructor Group. The ceremony took place at Cameroon’s CIFAN military training base in Ngaoundere and followed several weeks of training by representatives of the U.S. armed forces under the Africa Contingency Operations Training and Assistance (ACOTA) program. Created by the U.S. in 1997, the purpose of ACOTA is to train military personnel in African nations to effectively participate in multinational peacekeeping operations and deployments in support of the United Nations and the African Union. To date, ACOTA has provided training and non-lethal equipment to over 43,000 peacekeepers from over 20 African countries. The ceremony on December 12 marked the culmination of the most recent training effort and several previous donations of training equipment, such as water purification systems, generators, military radios, office equipment, and uniforms, by the U.S. to Cameroon’s first peacekeeping battalion.
Remarks by Ambassador Garvey | Photo Gallery