ADF

THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION Data analyst Fabrice Sonzahi enrolled in a course on artificial intelligence (AI) in Dakar, Senegal, hoping to help farmers improve crop yields in his home country of Côte d’Ivoire. He is part of an inaugural class at an AI programming school in Senegal, one of the first in West Africa. It will train people to use data to solve issues such as the impact of weather on crops. The Dakar Institute of Technology (DIT), which opened in September 2019, ran its first 10-week boot camp with nine students in partnership with French AI school Vivadata. “I am…

ADF STAFF M.K. was an unruly child, by his own admission.  The Idgwi island boy was not a good student. He didn’t listen to his parents or teachers. At age 13, he traveled to Goma, in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s (DRC) North Kivu province, to visit his older brother. While there, members of the National Congress for the People’s Defence (CNDP) drove up in a car, stopped him and asked him for identification. When M.K. said he did not have ID, members of the Congolese Tutsi anti-government militia tied him up, put him in the car and drove…

Lt. Gen. Molla Hailemariam is ground force commander of the Ethiopian National Defense Force (ENDF). His military career began in 1981 when he joined the struggle against the country’s ruling Derg regime. After Ethiopia’s return to civilian government in 1991, he joined the new military as a pilot and rose to become Air Force commander. He served as head of policy and strategy and as head of the logistics sector at the Defense Headquarters. He also commanded Special Forces before being promoted to ground force commander in 2019. He spoke to ADF during the African Land Forces Summit in Addis…

BRIG. GEN. (RET.) KHALIFA NAFTI/TUNISIAN AIR FORCE More than eight years after the Arab Spring protests of 2011, many people in North Africa are still striving for freedom and dignity. The stability and security many hoped for during the early days of protests is still elusive in many countries. These questions remain: Can the people of this region achieve that freedom and dignity in the years ahead? Will the transitions that began in 2011 lead to progress and stability or more disorder and insecurity? That will depend on two fundamental things: trust and the rule of law. Both form the…

MUSTAFA ELSAGEZLI Since 2011, Libya has gone through almost unimaginable turmoil with every aspect of society touched by violence.  During this time, the country has run on what is sometimes called a “war economy,” with many people, mostly young men, using weapons as their only means of survival. Early efforts at security-sector reform show that the numbers of combatants are staggering. A 2012 effort by the Libyan Warriors Affairs Commission collected data on 162,000 former revolutionary fighters and armed group members. A BBC report tallied 1,700 militia groups. The true numbers may be even larger as there are an estimated…

ADF STAFF One of the world’s largest maritime exercises included Djibouti in October and November 2019, providing training for African naval and coast guard forces intent on maintaining freedom of the seas.   The naval drills occupied the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea as part of United States Central Command’s International Maritime Exercise (IMX 19), which attracted 5,000 participants from about 50 nations. IMX coincided with Cutlass Express 19.2, an exercise conducted by U.S. Africa Command and U.S. Naval Forces Africa.  The dual exercises, which drew participants from Djibouti, Egypt, Kenya and other countries, demonstrated global cooperation in…

ADF STAFF When legendary Moroccan traveler Ibn Battuta made his way into what is now Somalia between 1330 and 1332, he took note of the extraordinary woven cloth he found in the Horn of Africa. In those days, Somalia was a major player in trade, due largely to its fortuitous position on the Indian Ocean. Its port was equal distances from Baghdad, Cairo and India. Cotton fields were common in Somalia’s Jubaland Plain, allowing Somalis to produce more than 350,000 textiles a year, according to Somalispot.com. The traditional weaving techniques and the vibrant colors that enliven the fabrics persisted for centuries.…

ADF STAFF On an August day in the Malian village of Gossi, a group gathered to mark the opening of a new building for the local women’s association. The humble clay structure was a rare bright spot for the desert town of about 8,000 that has been beset by years of violence. “After the dark hours lived through by the people of Gossi, we congratulate these women for their approach,” said Lt. Yacouba of the Malian National Guard during the ceremony. The women’s association, which has about 250 members, had been a pillar of stability in the town. Before the…

ADF STAFF | Photos by Reuters If any country should know about the disarmament, demobilization and reintegration of enemy fighters, it would be Uganda with its experience with the Lord’s Resistance Army. Joseph Kony’s Lord’s Resistance Army, or LRA, is mostly inactive today, but during its violent years, dating to 1987, it wreaked havoc on Uganda. The group killed 100,000 people and displaced another 1.7 million. Kony and his fighters kidnapped tens of thousands of children, turning them into hardened fighters and rebel “wives.” His child combatants were taught to rape, torture and massacre. Fighters who have escaped from the…

ADF STAFF The proliferation of armed groups in Africa’s second-largest country has destabilized the nation for decades, but an incident in December 2017 brought renewed attention to the dangers present in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The Allied Democratic Forces attacked United Nations personnel in the eastern DRC’s North Kivu province, killing 15 peacekeepers and at least five members of the national military and wounding another 53 peacekeepers. The three-hour firefight destroyed at least one armored personnel carrier, U.N. officials told The Washington Post. “This is the worst attack on U.N. peacekeepers in the organization’s recent history,” Secretary-General…