Remarks by Ambassador Bryan Hunt at the Freetown Depot Equipment Handover Ceremony to RSLAF

I want to express my sincere gratitude and admiration to the hundreds of RSLAF, U.S. military, and Triple Canopy personnel who have been involved with the inventory transfer and Depot-related accounting, maintenance, and operational training. This has been a significant undertaking and would not have been possible without their professionalism, leadership, and dedication. Your devotion to duty is an inspiration to us all.

The United States first commissioned the Freetown Training Facility Depot in November 2002 to enhance peace and stability throughout Sub-Saharan Africa. The Depot’s role has been to provide logistics support and service in the areas of supply, maintenance, and training to strengthen the capacity of African nations, to prevent, mitigate, and resolve conflicts on the continent. Throughout the Depot’s existence, the United States, working closely with other donor partners such as the Netherlands, the United Kingdom, and Germany, has procured equipment, supplies, and trained personnel to support a long list of peacekeeping and counter-terrorism missions and trainings throughout Africa.

Among these programs, the Freetown Depot supported the ECOWAS missions to monitor regional presidential and council elections and assisted the Security Sector Reform project in Liberia. With the help of the United Kingdom, the Depot trained and equipped an RSLAF company for a peacekeeping deployment mission to Sudan under the United Nations-African Union Mission in Darfur. The depot equally provided equipment to RSLAF for its own peacekeeping deployment mission to Somalia under the Africa Mission in Somalia. At this facility, the U.S. government has provided training in French, Arabic, and English for 1,652 soldiers from 15 African countries, including over 800 Sierra Leoneans, increasing African militaries’ interoperability in peacekeeping missions. The facility has also provided RSLAF personnel with training in a wide range of fields, including communication device operations, Global Positioning Systems equipment; vehicle driver and maintenance; facility maintenance; convoy operations; heavy-equipment operations; water treatment operations; and electrical operations.

In addition to carrying out numerous training activities over the last two decades, the United States has expended nearly one million U.S. dollars for facility renovation across all three depot sites in Sierra Leone that will benefit the RSLAF long after today’s handover ceremony.

As the Freetown Depot successfully completes its mission in Sub-Saharan Africa after twenty-two years of operations, the United States is pleased to transition it and nearly all its fully functional equipment to the RSLAF. This will strengthen the RSLAF’s capacity to maintain peace and stability in Sierra Leone, West Africa, and potentially throughout the African continent in future peacekeeping missions. The items the United States is donating to the RSLAF include office supplies and equipment; a clinic, fuel station, and warehouse; 194 vehicles including troop carrier trucks, buses, wreckers, generator trailers, sewage trucks, and fuel tankers; and over 29,000 pieces of communications equipment, associated spare parts, and consumables. You can see some of this donated equipment displayed in front of us.

Over the last several months, the U.S. Embassy Freetown teamed with Triple Canopy to train over 80 members of RSLAF to ensure they have the skills to maintain and operate this Depot and the equipment that will support future RSLAF missions from internal security to disaster management support. In addition, U.S. Army trainers from the 2nd Security Force Assistance Brigade have begun a two-month long series of Basic and Advanced Logistics courses in Freetown for 121 RSLAF members from the Army, Navy, and Air Force. This training will ensure that every Sierra Leone military service has the ability to account for, use, and maintain the donated equipment to achieve maximum efficiency and longevity. This donation has the potential to assist the RSLAF in securing Sierra Leone’s territorial integrity, helping the Sierra Leone Police and other security sector organizations with internal security, and defending Sierra Leone’s constitution and democracy. And, importantly, the United States remains committed to working alongside the RSLAF through our security assistance programs, including the State Partnership Program with the Michigan National Guard launched earlier this year, to ensure that the RSLAF has the skills, training, and support to translate this potential to reality.

This commitment and the strong relationship between Sierra Leone and the United States is based on our enduring, shared values of democracy, support for the rule of law, and respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms. It is a relationship that in all aspects – including our security cooperation — brings with it economic, security, and governance benefits to both of our countries. As our relationship continues to deepen, I know that the United States and the RSLAF will continue our strong partnership in support of regional peace and security and that the projects on which we will collaborate will continue to strengthen the bonds of affection between the people of our countries. Together, we will pursue a better future for Sierra Leone, the United States of America, and the world.

Thank you very much.