ADF

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Senegalese engineering students are throwing themselves at the COVID-19 problem with inventions such as automatic sanitizer dispensers and medical robots. Young innovators from a top engineering school in the capital, Dakar, have turned their technical skills toward easing pressure on the wards, and they are already in talks with hospitals over some of their new products.  One example is a small robot, dubbed “Dr. Car,” which will measure patients’ blood pressure and temperature, according to students from Dakar’s Ecole Superieure Polytechnique. The university is one of West Africa’s best for engineering and technology, and is highly selective, with…

ADF STAFF The movie version of organized crime typically depicts heavily armed Latin American drug cartels or Italian Mafia groups that run extortion rackets.  True organized crime is more sophisticated, diverse and widespread than any popular media or cultural stereotype. Criminals operate in different ways, large and small, with disparate interests in a variety of arenas.  This is equally true in Africa, and the continent has gotten increased attention from the global community regarding the full range of crimes favored by organized criminal networks. From poaching to human trafficking, drug smuggling to maritime crime, Africa displays an array of organized…

Dr. Tarek A. Sharif was appointed executive director of the African Union Mechanism for Police Cooperation (AFRIPOL) in May 2017. Before that he served as head of the Defence and Security Division in the Peace and Security Department of the African Union Commission in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from 2010 to 2017. He also served as senior policy officer in the African Union office in Lilongwe, Malawi, from 2006 to 2009. Before joining the African Union, Sharif was a lecturer at American University in Madrid from 2004 to 2006. He also was head of the International Cooperation Division of the Islamic…

ADF STAFF Illegal fishing in West Africa has decimated marine life, threatened food security and left artisanal fishermen impoverished. The Confederation Africaine des Organisations Professionnelles de la Pêche Artisanale, or the African Confederation of Professional Organizations of Artisanal Fisheries (CAOPA), is working to change that. Established in 2010, the Senegal-based group is composed of 26 organizations from the region and around the continent, including those in Chad, Madagascar, Morocco, South Africa and Tunisia. The organization pushes for policies that combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, support sustainable fisheries, and instill greater transparency in fishing sectors. In January, CAOPA President Gaoussou Gueye repeated…

ADF STAFF When Cmdr. Prince Boateng, a Ghana native, returned home in March, he wore a U.S. Navy uniform. He was part of Obangame Express 2021 (OE21), a 13-day maritime security exercise sponsored by U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and conducted by U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa. It included participation from 31 nations, 20 of which were African. Boateng, a reserve in the U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa/U.S. 6th Fleet, understood firsthand the importance of the exercise hosted by the Ghana Navy. “We’re here to help the Ghanaian Navy and the navies in the Gulf of Guinea to work together to help them protect…

ADF STAFF COVID-19 lockdowns led to a sharp drop in illegal wildlife trafficking, according to a new study. The study by the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS), done at the request of National Geographic magazine, found that international law enforcement agencies intercepted far less elephant ivory, rhino horn and pangolin scales in 2020 compared to past years. Whether measured by weight or the number of seizures, trafficking between African countries and Asian countries — primarily China — dropped from nearly 1,000 seizures in 2019 to nearly half that in 2020. The study showed that authorities confiscated 18 metric tons…

For nearly two decades, the island country of Mauritius has aspired to be a technical and financial force on the world stage. The country’s ambition to become an “information society” dates to 2001, when it established the Business Parks of Mauritius Ltd as a government-owned company to develop information and communications technology. That led to the Cyber City Project in 2003. The goal of the project was to make Mauritius a preferred destination for business and professionals and “to create wealth and employment through the use of information technology,” reported The New Economy of the United Kingdom. Today, the project…

CAPT. NOLUKHANYO NDLELENI, LESOTHO DEFENCE FORCE Women are a crucial part of the Lesotho Defence Force (LDF). They make up about 16% of uniformed personnel, and they populate the ranks from junior levels to brigadier. But the women do not work only in military “support services.” They also are deployed in combat arms, and a majority work in infantry battalions. In addition to their many LDF duties, they show selfless service beyond the military by improving the lives of those in the community, especially children. The country of 30,000 square kilometers and about 2 million inhabitants has few global security…

Imagine the stress of being a health worker on duty during a deadly global pandemic. Personal protective equipment is in short supply. The disease, COVID-19, is highly contagious and can spread quickly. Those sickest with the virus require intensive medical care, up to and including ventilation. Health workers must cope with a lack of sleep and countless hours spent separated from their families.  At Kenyatta National Hospital in Nairobi, Kenya, health care workers are trying to do something about all of that pent-up stress. Nurses participated in a Zumba aerobic fitness program. Dozens of nurses in blue scrubs and face…

Things did not go as planned. On May 15, 2020, 10 pirates boarded the Chinese-flagged Hailufeng 11, subdued the 18 crew members and turned off its automatic identification system (AIS). The AIS transponder broadcasts the boat’s location, and the pirates believed switching it off made the vessel invisible to monitoring systems. But authorities were still watching. Having received an urgent call from the vessel’s owner, authorities were able to manually plot the last known location of the Hailufeng. They monitored its movements in real time using maritime domain awareness (MDA) tools shared by all countries in the region. As the…