Abuja, 13^th October 2017 . The ECOWAS Standby Force (ESF) has concluded a 5-day Initial Planning Conference (IPC) for its Command Post Exercise (CPX) – JIGUI IV which saw it revise the Exercise Specifications (EXSPEC), consolidate the Exercise Plan (EXPLAN) and further develop the CARANA Scenario which will be used for the exercise.

The ECOWAS Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and security, Mrs. Halima Ahmed during her closing remarks on 13^th    October 2017, at the National Defence College (NDC) in Abuja, Nigeria, stated that expertise of the participants had ensured the success of the conference.

The Commissioner further stated that the Directorate of Peacekeeping and Regional Security is undertaking the CPX in 2018 in collaboration with the African Union, ECOWAS Training Centres of Excellence, Member States and Development Partners in accordance with the Maputo African standby Force Strategic work plan.

Hence, the acting provost of the NDC, Dr.Isaac Mankilik in his comments at the close of the conference reiterated the commitment of the college in build-up to the exercise and its hosting.

Syndicate groups during the conference worked on thematic areas such as operations, technical requirements, Real Life Support (RLS) and the development of a public information and media strategy.

The IPC is the first of three planning conferences in the build-up to the Command Post Exercise.

The aim of the CPX- JIGUI IV is to test the capability of ESF to conduct strategic and operational level planning for multidimensional operations and to exercise Command and Control of deployed forces on a simulated ECOWAS/ AU mandated PSO in order to confirm the Full Operational Capability (FOC) of the ESF Rapid Deployment Capability.