ADF

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…

CLUES The Almoravids founded this city in 1061 A.D. as a military settlement. It mostly is associated with Sultan Moulay Ismail, who reigned from 1672 to 1727 and transformed it into a spectacular capital with 45 kilometers of exterior walls. Its urban design integrates Islamic and European architecture and town planning. Behind the city’s high defensive walls are 25 mosques, 10 public baths, palaces, granaries, vestiges of merchant inns and private houses. ANSWER  The historic city of Meknes, Morocco 

ADF STAFF Aynalem was on a bus traveling from Ethiopia’s Amhara region to Addis Ababa in late August when the vehicle was ambushed by militants from the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), which claims to fight for the self-determination of the ethnic Oromo group. A 21-year-old biomedical engineering student, Aynalem said the attackers were young and carried assault rifles. They boarded the bus and ordered it to drive for hours. When it stopped, Aynalem was forced to call her parents, as her abductors demanded a 500,000-birr (about $4,400) ransom. Several excruciating days passed. “They made us sleep on the grass, we…

ADF STAFF A string of clashes in Ethiopia’s Amhara region between government forces and an ethnic militia are sparking fears of a widening war. In September, fighting in the towns of Debark and Dabat in North Gondar left at least nine dead and 30 injured. During the same month, the ethnic Amhara militia known as the Fano briefly captured Gondar, a culturally important city that dates to the medieval era. Both sides appear to be digging in for a prolonged conflict. Speaking to a cheering crowd in Shewa, Gen. Tefera Mamo, a former Ethiopian military leader who joined the Fano…