U.S. Africa Command hosted 11 coalition officers assigned to Combined Joint Task Force - Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) in Djibouti for their first visit to the command's headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany July 19-20, 2011.

The two-day visit was part of U.S. AFRICOM's outreach to key partners, and served to better integrate African partners with the AFRICOM headquarters.

"These officers are serving with our subcomponent command in Djibouti, and we want them to see AFRICOM's big, strategic, picture for themselves," said Bradford Sellers, a Capstone Corporation contractor working as a member of the AFRICOM Cooperation Center staff. "By offering them transparency regarding our intentions, we hope they will use this new information to help build deeper partnerships between AFRICOM and their home countries. One visiting officer told me that he had 'learned more about AFRICOM in two-days here, than in five years working on African security issues.'"

Visiting coalition officers represented various branches of military services from Comoros, Djibouti, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Kenya, Mauritius, Romania, South Korea, Uganda and the U.K., each posted at CJTF-HOA to fill roles mutually agreed with their respective countries.

"Each country has a different purpose," explained Chief Petty Officer Sharrie Shupien, CJTF-HOA's coalition coordinator. "The African countries sent coalition officers to liaison between their countries, their militaries, and CJTF-HOA. The others are primarily embedded exchange officers."

The visitors attended various events and meetings, including a welcome by Major General H.D. Polumbo Jr., U.S. AFRICOM's chief of staff. They also attended a command brief to become more acquainted with the command's structure, mission and programs; briefings on AFRICOM's engagement efforts in Africa; and intelligence briefings on AFRICOM security cooperation and engagements. They also had a substantive roundtable with AFRICOM experts.

The coalition officers themselves each shared briefings, with AFRICOM staff, covering their own respective program activities and national security priorities.

Coalition partners and other U.S. defense components provide support to regional organizations to help foster cooperation, enhance collective peace-keeping, improve humanitarian assistance and support civil-military operations along with U.S. service members at CJTF-HOA.

"Engagement with African security forces is near the top of this command's priorities, so hosting the coalition officers for a few days is just one part of a much broader outreach effort," said Sellers. "We hope they left here impressed by the professionalism and efficiency of our command and staff, and will use this new information to broaden the partnerships between their own security forces and AFRICOM."