Source: DVIDS
"It is now more dangerous to be a woman than to be a soldier in modern wars," Maj. Gen. Patrick Cammaert, the deputy force commander of the United Nations Mission to the Democratic Republic of Congo, once said.

President Barack Obama's directive to combat global gender-based violence crime was implemented for the first time during Central Accord 14 here March 18. According to a 2013 review of available data, 35 percent of women worldwide have experienced gender-based violence. The Women's Peace and Security National Action Plan was put into practice December 11, 2013.

Women's peace and Security is a much larger topic than just sexual assault, it is conflict driven and requires getting women involved in the peacekeeping process at the strategic, operational and tactical level, said Maj. Rick Banks, U.S. Africa Command, public private partnership and interagency engagements officer. In some cultures it is essential to have female forces in order to deal with the female populous.

The U.S. is working in concert with host and partner nations in order to conduct familiarization in peacekeeping operations, humanitarian disaster response and combating terrorism for a stable and secure Africa.

Conflict driven gender-based violence is used to dominate and humiliate a specific group of people, Banks said. If someone knows there is going to be no consequences to their actions then they will continue doing them.

"When a country is in a state of destabilization, you see these types of atrocities," said Sgt. Obeyemi Oluwa-Femi, representative from the civil affairs department of Nigeria.

Central Accord 14 is a training exercise aiming to increase professional capacity of participating armed forces to build stronger peacekeeping and security skills, while developing multi-national working relationships.

"Because there's a lot of crisis in Africa, we need to do organizational training so that we all learn these lesson," said Oluwa-Femi. "We cannot view unforeseen circumstances, we do not know what will happen tomorrow, and must be prepared to deal with anything. This type of training teaches you to be prepared."

The 8215 and 8213 Civil Affairs Teams, 82nd Civil Affairs Battalion, 85th Civil Affairs Brigade trained and tested multi-national forces' skills dealing with conflict driven gender-based violence during a difficult situational training exercise. The exercise was designed to test problem-solving and leadership skills, demanding focus and drive to keep the peace of a simulated village while investigating and apprehending sexual offenders.

The Cameroon Defense Force platoon was first faced with a peacekeeping mission involving refugees, a nongovernmental humanitarian organization and community key leaders. They were given criteria and rules of engagement to deal with the issues they would face.

"From my experience, this scenario is very realistic, almost perfect," said Oluwa-Femi. "You cannot go to a community without addressing the key leader of that place. From the beginning of the scenario, they had to pass through the elder to solve any problems in the community."

The platoon leader believes he is on a single mission to solve a conflict between the local key leaders and refugees who have moved onto their land, said Capt. Kevin Kleber, 8215 CAT, officer in charge. Their assignment is to resolve the conflict by assessing the condition of sewage, water, electricity and roads, until a victim of sexual assault approaches the key leaders accusing a legal police checkpoint of rape.

"They weren't expecting to have to deal with a sexual assault victim when they were going down to the checkpoint to make an assessment of the water pump," said Banks. "At that point we didn't want them to focus on the water pump because we were leading them to their main objective, which was the apprehension of those responsible for the sexual assault."

"The scenario was designed to take them outside of their comfort zone by using multiple unexpected complications," said Kleber. "As the world changes our militaries need to be prepared for anything."

The platoon leader reacted to the unforeseen situation perfectly.

"The first thing the Cameroon forces did was ask me if they could medically asses me, which was absolutely what we were looking for and one of the criteria they had to meet," said the U.S. Soldier playing the victim, Staff Sgt. Leia Puco, 8215 CAT, 82nd CA Bn., 85th CA Bde. "Instead of putting their hands on me or flocking around me, they separated me and asked me if I needed medical attention."

The first president-mandated gender based violence training went favorably.

"The did remarkably well," said Banks. "They met all of the criteria of the ROE."

The first Cameroon platoon dealt with the surprising inject of a sexual assault case naturally and without flaw.

"The end-state and priority of this scenario was to thoroughly investigate the rape," said Oluwa-Femi. "When they addressed the issue of the violence, then they can go back later and focus on the first issue of water."

The Nigerian and Burundi partners participated in the academics portion of the exercise, and then assisted in the training of the Cameroon Defense Force at the situational training exercise.

"The first week encompassed academics, which incorporated the five civil affairs core tasks and the district stability framework which is a USAID [U.S. Agency for International Development] program," said Puco. "The second portion of the training was the situational training on gender-based violence."

All of the national forces involved in CA 14 civil affairs training learned more about conflict driven gender-base violence.

While the U.S. civil affairs academics focused their training on U.N. fundamentals and techniques of dealing with conflict-based sexual crimes, the partnered nation representatives were sharing their knowledge and experience, said Puco. it was a give and take conversation the whole time.

"I personally took away a lot of information they shared with us that I can now put in my toolbox for future training exercises and deployments," said Puco. "Our partner nations have ties with what is going on here, so it made it very realistic for us."

During an open discussion with the Nigerians about the Boko Haram issues in their country they came up with solutions and techniques of their own that I hadn't even thought of, said Banks. They have dealt with this stuff before and they have world's of experience above us.

"We all have a common interest in protecting the civil society," said Kleber. "We don't know where our next battlefield will be, so building strong ties with partner nations who share the same enemy results in stronger forces."

The U.S. is committed to strengthening our relationships with our African partners, who will be the one's to solve Africa's problems.

"The training was beneficial for all parties involved because of the increasing occurrences of gender-based violence on this continent," said Sgt. 1st Class John Roper, 8215 CAT, 82nd CA Bn., 85th CA Bde. "Especially the use of rape as a weapon."

The Civil affairs training conducted here during CA 14 is just one step closer to a more secure Africa.

"You can't save the world, but if you can plant the seed that the world can be saved, then you have hope," said Sgt. 1st Class Jonathan Jones, 8215 CAT, 82nd CA Bn., 85th CA Bde., NCOIC.