July 2024

ADF STAFF Lt. Gen. John Mugaravai Omenda was appointed vice chief of the Kenya Defence Forces in May 2024. Prior to that he spent three years as Kenya Air Force Commander. He joined the Kenya Air Force in 1991 and was commissioned as a…

The Mwalimu Julius Nyerere Leadership School in Kibaha, Tanzania, looks like any institution of higher learning on the outside. Its campus shines with newness and embodies the spirit of Southern Africa’s six major liberation movements,…

ADF STAFF As Somalia continues to take charge of a greater share of its own national security, its long-standing police force marked an important milestone. The Somali Police Force, formed on December 20, 1943, celebrated its 80th…

ADF STAFF Africa may have already gotten its first experience with artificial intelligence on the battlefield in mid-2020. That’s when Turkish-made autonomous Kargu-2 drones tracked and killed members of Libyan Field Marshal Khalifa…

ADF STAFF The past two years have been hard ones for United Nations peacekeepers. The mission in Mali shut down suddenly. The mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has begun its shutdown, while missions in the Central African…

ADF STAFF Immediately after Burkina Faso’s National Assembly unanimously approved arming civilian volunteers to help battle extremists in January 2020, the risks were clear. Despite two weeks of training, an age requirement of 18…

ADF STAFF Years of peace in the coastal nation of Côte d’Ivoire were interrupted in 2020 when violent extremist groups in neighboring Burkina Faso began crossing the border and staging attacks. Côte d’Ivoire reported at least 20 attacks,…

DEFENCEWEB Mechanics from Zambia spent a week in the United States learning how to maintain Enstrom turbine-powered 480B helicopters. Zambia’s Ministry of Defence signed a contract in 2023 for two of the helicopters which will be used as…

DEFENCEWEB Boeing has started manufacturing the first of 24 AH-64E Apache attack helicopters for Morocco ahead of deliveries to the North African nation beginning in 2024.  Preparations are underway at the Khouribga military base to…

DEFENCEWEB Alexandria Shipyard has launched the Egyptian Navy’s first locally built Meko A200 frigate, the fourth overall for the North African nation. The Al-Jabbar was launched on December 4, 2023, with Egyptian President…