ADF

ADF STAFF After three decades of civil war, Angola is left with a deadly legacy: land mines. Although fighting ended in 2002, Angola remains one of the most heavily mined countries in the world. Land mine explosions killed 76 people in 2019. An estimated one-fifth of the country’s population lives in areas with mines, which affect every aspect of their lives. “Land mines not only kill and maim innocent people, but also isolate communities from basic needs such as water sources and travel routes and productive land crucial for growing crops and grazing livestock,” the demining group APOPO said. The…

ADF STAFF Ghana opened a security operations center (SOC) to monitor and respond to cyberattacks.  The center, run by the National Information Technology Agency under the Ministry of Communications, will protect data from Ghana’s governmental ministries, departments and agencies.  “The SOC will offer services, including network monitoring, which will ensure that government networks are monitored consistently in real time and will contribute to the identification of patterns and prioritization of problems for optimized resource and threat management,” Communications Minister Ursula Owusu-Ekuful told GhanaWeb. The center is expected to partner with the national Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) and the National…

ADF STAFF Conflicts caused by the annual cattle migration are common in South Sudan. Cows sometimes eat or destroy the crops of farmers, who may react by killing the cattle. This escalates to warfare between families or villages. The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) is supporting an effort that travels from village to village facilitating dialogue to resolve disputes.  “Our objective in coming here today is to encourage you to opt for dialogue to resolve any disagreements instead of resorting to violence,” said Joseph Ngoriakou, UNMISS civil affairs officer, as he addressed a gathering in Warrap State in…

ADF STAFF The ongoing fight between government forces and rebels in the Central African Republic (CAR) has taken an explosive turn with the addition of land mines and improvised bombs, putting civilians directly in harm’s way. In the latest demonstration of how the situation in the CAR is escalating, a roadside bomb in September exploded under a relief convoy in the nation’s northwest, killing one aid worker. A United Nations analysis found that Russian mercenaries known as the Wagner Group are driving the increased violence. Wagner forces are working with the CAR government under President Faustin-Archange Touadéra to put down…

ADF STAFF A huge net swings across an industrial fishing trawler in Ghana. It opens, and the deck fills with a pile of glistening, silver-scaled fish. The ship’s double-net system, which helps catch larger amounts of smaller fish, is illegal in Ghana, as is the presence of the foreign-owned vessel. “Sometimes we select the biggest ones (fish) and label them,” said a Ghanaian fisherman who works on foreign trawlers and spoke anonymously to the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF). “If we get 2,000 to 2,500 slabs, we call the canoes who collect them from the vessels.” On industrial trawlers frozen fish…

ADF STAFF Kenyan Army Lt. Col. Irene Machangoh looked around the room, then looked at the women seated at her table and noticed something they had in common that drew them to serve their countries. “We all believe there is power in the uniform we wear,” the foreign liaison officer to the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa (CJTF-HOA) said at the gathering in Djibouti. The uniform, she said, is a symbol that helps service members — particularly women — visualize their strength. Empowering and encouraging women was one of many objectives at the inaugural Women in Security Symposium in…

U.N. MISSION IN SOUTH SUDAN Chief Inspector Doreen Mazuba Malambo of Zambia believes in a simple motto: “When you teach a woman, you teach a nation.” She has brought that wisdom to more than a decade of service in peacekeeping missions on the African continent where she has helped protect women and children caught in conflict. Now serving in the United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS), she has been named U.N. Woman Police Officer of the Year. “I’ve always believed that women need to be heard on any issue that has a direct bearing on their day-to-day life,” she…

ADF STAFF The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) is improving its ability to investigate, arrest and prosecute criminals, including those who traffic illicit goods.   The NAF graduated 15 people from the Advanced Crime Scene Investigation Course at the 057 Provost Investigation Group in Lagos. The intensive four-week course taught Air Force personnel how to approach crime fighting scientifically. The course covered topics such as evidence recovery, crime scene photography and fingerprinting. Graduates learned how to lift and preserve DNA evidence and how to present evidence during legal proceedings. During the graduation ceremony, Air Vice Marshal Lawal Alao told graduates that…

ADF STAFF A pilot project by Chad’s Armed Forces aims to create a self-sustaining food supply for the military by developing farms on military outposts. Graduates of the Chadian Army Farm School started the first on-base farm at the military’s training center in Koundoul. The tilled and irrigated farm, which covers about 6.5 hectares within the military compound, has raised crops such as rice, okra, beans, melons, hibiscus, tomatoes, eggplant and onions. “The creation of the Land Forces Farm jump-started skills we learned at Koundoul,” Lt. Adam Eritero Cordubo, a 2019 graduate of the farm school, told ADF. “Our skills from…

VOICE OF AMERICA The COVID-19 pandemic has wiped out an estimated 2 million jobs in Kenya, forcing many into the informal economy. Kenyans, however, also have a secret that is keeping many of them financially afloat — the largest cooperative savings and loan movement in Africa.  With more than 14 million members making monthly contributions, Kenya’s cooperatives offer loans during tough times, helping many to ride out the pandemic or even start their own businesses.  Judy Muthama was selling shoes and utensils in the Mukuru Kwa Njenga slum in central Nairobi. Sales were good until the pandemic wiped out her…