Relationship between NATO and African Union

Since 2005, NATO has been supporting the African Union (AU). NATO-AU cooperation has mainly been pragmatic and driven by requests from the African Union for support in very specific areas. The principal areas of cooperation, as agreed in March 2020, are operational support, training support, and structural assistance.

Operational support

Following NATO’s support to the AU mission in Sudan in 2005, the AU made a general request in January 2007 to all partners, including NATO, for financial and logistical support to its mission in Somalia (AMISOM). It later made a specific request to NATO in May 2007, requesting strategic airlift support for AU member states willing to deploy in Somalia under AMISOM. In June 2007, the North Atlantic Council (NAC) agreed, in principle, to support this request and NATO’s support was initially authorized until August 2007. Strategic sealift support was requested at a later stage and agreed in principle by the NAC in September 2009.

Training support

1. Education and training

NATO offers opportunities for AU personnel to attend courses at the NATO School in Oberammergau, Germany, and the NATO Defense College in Rome, Italy. The AU is also being given access, in a step-by-step process matching AU interest with NATO expertise, to the skills and know-how available within NATO-accredited Centers of Excellence.

2. Mobile training

Since 2015 and in response to an AU request, NATO has delivered dedicated training to African Union officers through Mobile Education and Training Teams (METT) that deliver tailored courses in Africa. NATO has progressively increased the number of courses delivered and is providing three or more METT courses annually. The METT format allows it to reach a wider audience: participants are drawn from among AU staff, but also from the Regional Economic Communities headquarters.

Structural assistance

NATO provides structural assistance to the AU through the deployment of NATO subject matter experts to the AU Headquarters in Ethiopia and in particular to the AU Peace Support Operations Division. These experts have made significant contributions to AU priority areas. Working side-by-side with AU counterparts, they share their knowledge and know-how in planning across various domains including maritime, finance, monitoring, procurement, air movement coordination, communications, information technology, logistics, human resources, military manpower management, and contingencies. NATO has also been providing expert and training support to the African Stand-by Force (ASF) Concept at the AU’s request. The ASF is to be deployed in Africa in times of crisis and is part of the AU’s efforts to develop long-term peacekeeping capabilities; it represents the AU’s vision for a continental, on-call security apparatus. NATO’s doctrinal knowledge and practical experiences linked to the NATO Response Force and NATO’s Very High Readiness Joint Task Force are valuable for the AU to advance the ASF Concept. For instance, NATO has organized certification/evaluation and training programs for AU staff, which support the ASF’s operational readiness. NATO has also trained AU officials participating in military exercises and provided military experts to assist in the evaluation and lessons learned procedures of an exercise and has supported various ASF preparatory workshops designed to develop ASF-related concepts. Moreover, the Alliance is specifically engaged in providing support to bringing the ASF’s Continental Logistics base in Douala, Cameroon to full operational capacity.