Regional Leaders Seminar brings partners together in Cameroon

The U.S. Army, in partnership with the Cameroonian Armed Forces and other partner nations, hosted a Regional Leaders Seminar for senior military leaders in Douala, Cameroon, April 28.

This was the second in a series of four regional seminars conducted this year at the conclusion of each Accord Series exercise to bring together regional military leaders to discuss ways to further align, balance and synchronize multi-national activities.

This RLS followed the inaugural exercise Unified Focus 2017 that was conducted at the Douala Naval Base April 24-28. UF 17 was a weeklong tabletop exercise that brought the military partners of the Lake Chad basin area's Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) together to practice joint planning and coordination through a series of scripted vignettes.

The RLS gathered regional senior leaders together to discuss shared issues, challenges and threats in an open forum where candid dialog is encouraged between participants to establish a unified approach to future efforts.

Eight nations, including the U.S., participated in the seminar, as well as Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger, Nigeria, the Republic of the Congo and the United Kingdom.

The primary goal of the Regional Leaders Seminar was to increase interoperability between African partners, develop a consensus on the regional threat and challenges, identify training gaps, and cement partnerships between regional counterparts.

Once the seminar was complete, all participants returned to their home countries and stations.