The Torch: CF helping train African peacekeepers

Good on the Globe and Mail for this story on one of the wide-range of things the CF in fact do:

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Two Canadian military officers, Major Francois Provost (right) and Major Marc Chabot (left), with a local guard at the entrance of a new school in Bamako, the capital of Mali, which trains African soldiers for peacekeeping.

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A few years ago, Major François Provost was in Congo when two of his United Nations colleagues were tortured and killed by tribal fighters.
The two UN observers were unable to speak French, the main language of the country. It meant that they had no chance to negotiate their way out of captivity.

Maj. Provost, a Canadian military training instructor, often cites the Congo torture case when he is talking to African soldiers at a new peacekeeping school here. The school's lessons, he says, can save lives.

In a continent where brutal wars are still too common, Canada is trying to promote peace by supporting a new school that teaches peacekeeping techniques – including language skills – to soldiers from across Africa.

It's too early to know if the venture will pay off. The school is only two years old at its present location in Bamako, capital of the West African nation of Mali. But already it is training African peacekeepers for some of the toughest assignments on the continent: Somalia, Congo, Sudan and Ivory Coast.

The school is part of a new wave of efforts by Africans to solve their own wars without foreign intervention.

Troops from the African Union have begun to replace or supplement the UN peacekeepers in a number of war zones. A network of peacekeeping brigades is being created in each of Africa's main regions as a “standby force” to deploy swiftly to emerging conflict zones, with the first brigade to be ready next year [more on the African Union and peacekeeping here and here]...
Canada is one of the biggest supporters of the Bamako peacekeeping school, contributing more than $2-million for its construction and development since 2007 and sending several Canadian military officers to help with training and management at the school. The Pearson Peacekeeping Centre in Canada is one of the school's main partners...
The school has trained a total of 1,850 soldiers, police and civilians from 41 African countries. No longer just a school for francophone Africa, it now accepts soldiers from across the continent...
Maj. Provost, a member of the UN team that investigated the Congo tragedy, says the Canadian military trainers have skills that are ideally suited for the African peacekeeping school. “Canada has a good reputation here,” he says. “Often we are the mediators between the Africans and the Europeans here. Our biggest strength is our bilingualism. We're the only ones who are fully comfortable in English and French.”..

Current UN peacekeeping operations in Africa:

Current CF UN-related African operations:

Operation Crocoodile (MONUC, Congo)
Operation SAFARI (UNMIS, Sudan)
Operation SATURN (UNAMID, Darfur)
Task Force Addis Ababa (supporting African Union Darfur mission, AMIS)
Operation SCULPTURE (associated with UNIOSIL, Sierra Leone--successor to UNAMSIL, CF webpage seems not quite up-to-date)