ADF

Vice Adm. Seth Amoama, chief of the Defence Staff of the Ghana Armed Forces, spoke on “Ghana’s Military Efforts in Curbing Terrorism” at the first International Defence Exhibition and Conference on October 12, 2022, at Burma Camp in Accra, Ghana. His remarks are taken from an account published by the Ghana Peace Journal and have been edited for space and clarity. Ghana in the past few years has deployed a multisectoral all-of-government-and-society approach to contain any possible spillover of terrorism and violent extremism. The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) in response has also devised a well-thought-out military strategy and implementation plan…

ADF STAFF As food insecurity continued to plague Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) inaugurated a regional group to address the issue. The Learning Network on Nutrition Surveillance (LeNNS), with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), first met on November 23, 2022, in Nairobi, Kenya, to work toward “effective policies, advocacy and action planning around nutrition in the region,” according to IGAD.  Dr. Patrick Amoth, director-general of Kenya’s Ministry of Health, said LeNNS will help generate timely information and evidence so it can be used to inform effective…

ADF STAFF China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) promised huge investments in ports throughout the world. But the environmental and human costs of these projects are only beginning to be understood, according to reports. Chinese-built ports in Angola, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Mauritania and Mozambique have become examples of how such projects can disrupt aquatic ecosystems and local artisanal fishing communities, according to a report led by Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center. Countries on Africa’s Atlantic coast — particularly Angola, Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire — face the greatest risk to their local fishing communities from port projects. Cameroon’s artisanal…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Côte d’Ivoire, which has lost nearly all its forests in the past half century, has launched a major project to triple its cover by 2030, the government announced in November 2022. The Forests Investment Project aims to cover 6.5 million hectares — about 20% of the country — said the World Bank, which is financing the $149 million project. The project also would help preserve 300,000 hectares of degraded forest land in the southwest, and forests in the northern Savanes zone, said Water and Forests Minister Laurent Tchagba. The seven-year project will benefit the country’s four national parks,…

Maj. Gen. Ibrahim of the Nigerian Army has a military career that spans more than 35 years. He holds a master’s degree in strategic studies from the University of Ibadan and has participated in international peace support operations in Liberia and Sudan. Domestically, he has led troops in operations in the Bakassi Peninsula, the Niger Delta and Kaduna. During his career he received honors including the Distinguished Service Star, Field Command Medal of Honour and Operation Lafiya Dole medal. In August 2021, he was named force commander of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), a five-nation regional effort mandated to…

ADF STAFF In the vast agricultural Middle Belt of central Nigeria, Emmanuel Ogbudu has witnessed the power of local interventions. Ogbudu, a monitoring and evaluation manager for the humanitarian group Mercy Corps, has spent more than 10 years as a peace practitioner. He likes to tell the story of a farmer in Bokkos, Plateau State, who called the police to arrest a herder whose cattle destroyed some of his crops. Begging the farmer to withdraw the case so they could resolve it at home, the pastoralist contacted his local leader who had been trained by Mercy Corps in negotiation techniques.…

ADF STAFF Amina Fofana is a member of one of Mali’s pro-junta protest groups and serves on the military government’s National Transitional Council, the nation’s legislative body. She’s prolific on social media. Her Facebook page shows about 5,000 friends and is home to a torrent of posts that appear several times a day. She also is a staunch supporter of Russian influence in Mali and spreads its deceptive propaganda and disinformation. On December 9, 2021, she posted a 3-minute, 27-second video that showed a white helicopter land in an open field as at least four young men waited. A voice…

ADF Staff Peacekeeping missions remain the answer to many of the world’s toughest security challenges. But there is a growing consensus that to remain relevant, peacekeeping needs to adapt.  In places such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), Mali and South Sudan, United Nations missions have stretched on for a decade or more. These large, multidimensional stabilization missions typically include 10 or more troop-contributing countries and cost as much as $1.5 billion per year.  Instead of monitoring a cease-fire as many missions did in decades past, peacekeepers are being asked to take on insurgencies, militias or extremist groups.…

ADF STAFF Botswana has remained one of the most peaceful countries on the African continent for decades. But stability and prosperity should not lull nations into complacency about security at home or in their regions. The Botswana Defence Force (BDF) already has a contingent serving in the multinational Southern African Development Community Mission in Mozambique, where extremists have maintained a fierce armed insurgency in the north for years. Keeping forces ready for domestic and regional responses, as well as peacekeeping duties, is essential. To that end, the BDF took part in Joint Combined Exchange Training (JCET) with U.S. Special Operations…

ADF STAFF Tanyuy Etienne is a mental health specialist who treats victims of gender-based violence in Cameroon’s Northwest region, where a civil war continues into its sixth year. He says he has treated 30 women and girls — some as young as 9 years old — who were raped by security forces or members of armed groups. “A lot of people are living with post-traumatic stress disorder because of the crisis,” he told The Associated Press. Summary executions, rape and torture are among the abuses that civilians are suffering at the hands of security forces, Anglophone separatists and militias, according…