ADF

ADF STAFF Retired Brig. Gen. Geraldine George was confirmed as Liberia’s minister of defense in April 2024, marking the first time a woman has held the position. George enlisted in the Army in 2006 after the end of the country’s civil war and held positions including infantry brigade commander and leadership roles relating to personnel and operations. She served as deputy chief of staff for six years. In a 2022 interview to launch a book called “Living Legends,” George said her first passion was the law, but after witnessing the destruction her country experienced in the civil war, she thought…

ADF STAFF The Tanzania Peoples Defence Forces has received two renovated laboratory buildings that will help the country in its fight against HIV/AIDS. The U.S. President’s Emergency Program for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the largest provider of HIV/AIDS relief on the continent, funded the project. PEPFAR representatives presented the renovated buildings at the Makambako Dispensary in Njombe Region and Mbalizi Military Hospital in Mbeya Region to the TPDF in February 2024.  The TPDF plays a lead role in fighting the spread of HIV in the country and is implementing HIV testing and interventions at its 21 military health centers nationwide. “The…

ADF STAFF The Senegalese Armed Forces (SAF) launched an operation on land, river and air in February 2024 to restore security to the far east of the country, which borders Mali. The operation, known as Sentinelle Est, dismantled illegal gold mining sites along the Faleme River, disrupted trafficking routes and took on violent gangs menacing the region.  “The objective is to reinforce the security of the populations living along the border,” Senegal’s military public information directorate said in a statement. “Actions were made in all the border villages, sites of economic interest as well as uninhabited spaces.” As of April…

Late 2023 saw a surge in intercommunal conflict in parts of South Sudan, resulting in 862 instances of death, injury, abduction and conflict-related sexual violence, according to a United Nations peacekeeping mission. The U.N. Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) produced its final quarterly report for 2023 and found a 4% increase in incidents and a 35% increase in victims compared to the previous quarter. Intercommunal violence by militias and/or civil defense groups accounted for 86% of all civilians affected during the period. The main conflict hot spot, Warrap State, experienced an 87% increase in victims compared to the previous quarter,…

The African Union, by way of its Peace and Security Council, has endorsed a Southern African Development Community decision to deploy troops to the Democratic Republic of the Congo to restore peace and security in the eastern part of the country, overruling protestations from Rwanda. A communique issued after a March 2024 African Union Peace and Security Council meeting asked the AU Commission to “mobilise requisite support” for SAMIDRC, the regional community’s peacekeeping mission to the DRC. DefenceWeb reported that the first elements of the mission arrived in the eastern DRC in mid-December 2023, with the scheduled movement of part…

ADF STAFF The Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces explosive devices team started 2024 by clearing improvised explosive devices (IED) on the major Lower Shabelle Shalambot/Ceeljale supply route as part of the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia. The team was deployed after IEDs, seemingly planted by al-Shabaab fighters, exploded, hitting a civilian vehicle carrying five people, defenceWeb reported. The wounded were evacuated by a mission humanitarian convoy to Ceelwaligo for treatment. After the team cleared that section of the road, Uganda Battle Group 37 Commander Col. Charles Asiimwe condemned the planting of IEDs. “The heinous and barbaric acts committed by al-Shabaab…

ADF Staff The Lewis B. Puller-class expeditionary sea base USS Hershel “Woody” Williams completed its participation in Exercise Sea Lion 2024 alongside the Ghana Navy in the Gulf of Guinea in March 2024. The ship, known as the HWW, hosted five Ghanaian Sailors, while two U.S. Sailors embarked on Ghana Navy vessels. During the personnel exchange, Sailors made their way to longitude and latitude 0 degrees, where the Greenwich Meridian meets the equator. The Sailors then swapped back to their own ships via two separate personnel transfers from an HWW rigid-hull inflatable boat crew. Once the ships reached the coordinates,…

DEFENCEWEB A group of South African Soldiers attached to the United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo have another skill set, jungle warfare, thanks to training offered by Brazilian specialists. Thirty-six South African Soldiers attached to the U.N.’s Force Intervention Brigade and identified as having instructor potential were selected for specialist training by the Brazilian Jungle Warfare Mobile Training Team detachment. Eight specialists from Brazil’s Jungle War Instruction Centre presented the six-module course. The South Africans trained in shooting, navigation, tactical movement and offensive operations. They also got an overview of general jungle warfare.  The South…

DEFENCEWEB Donations from Denmark and Japan will help the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) continue humanitarian mine action operations in northern Ethiopia after conflict from 2020 to 2022. Denmark’s contribution is, according to a U.N. statement, more than $1 million. Japan has committed $1.19 million. The funding will go to UNMAS to promote peace and safety in northern Ethiopia. Explosive contamination imperils community safety and hampers economic development as it restricts access to land and resources. UNMAS work to remove land mines and explosive remnants of war ensures, among other things, that humanitarian aid deliveries are not interrupted. UNMAS…

ADF STAFF Nearly 3,000 years have passed since the time of the North African conqueror known simply as Hannibal. Yet he still is remembered as a military genius, a man who used elephants in warfare, and a man who helped shape the course of civilization. He is best known for the audacity of his greatest military achievement: He took his army over the Alps to invade the region now known as Italy. Hannibal Barca was born in 247 B.C. in the city of Carthage. Remnants of the city remain to this day in what is now Tunis, the coastal capital…