ADF

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…

Long-serving dictators have many tricks to help them hold onto power. One is a process known as “coup-proofing,” or building armed forces that will not rebel. Political scientist Philip Roessler said leaders attempt to coup-proof a regime in three ways: Purge the military ranks of any members who might oppose the leader.  Give preferential financial and political treatment to top military commanders.  Employ a tactic known as “ethnic stacking.” In ethnic stacking, the leader of a country fills his top military ranks with officers of his own ethnicity. Ethnic stacking can help a leader stay in power, but it almost…

ADF STAFF  |  Photos by TECH. SGT. ASHLEY NICOLE TAYLOR/U.S. AIR FORCE The United States has sold six MD 530F helicopters to the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) that can engage in attack, scout and close air support missions for the East African nation. “This demonstrates how the U.S. remains fully committed to providing relevant and timely training and equipment to bolster the KDF capabilities,” said U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Michael D. Turello, commanding general of Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa. The U.S. delivered the six MD 530F Cayuse Warrior helicopters to the Kenya Army’s Joint Helicopter Command at Embakasi…

VOICE OF AMERICA In Africa, hundreds of indigenous languages are on the verge of extinction. That includes at least 13 languages in Kenya. Kenyan civil society groups are proposing a bill to help preserve and safeguard these disappearing dialects. Leriman Letiko, who is 102, is passing down knowledge of a culture and a dialect that might be near its end. Letiko and his 95-year-old brother, Leteiyon, are the only two left in a tribe of about 10,000 who can speak fluent Yakunte. The United Nations culture organization UNESCO classifies the Yakunte language as extinct, but the Yaaku, an indigenous tribe…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Talal Afifi has worked for years to revive Sudanese cinema, which languished through three decades of authoritarian rule. With the fall of longtime autocrat Omar al-Bashir, he sees new hope.  When Afifi attended a 2008 short film festival in Munich, Germany, the winning film — an Iraqi documentary shot on a handycam — inspired him to return home and set up a training center and production house.  “I wanted to remind people that there is a place called Sudan, which was once renowned in the field of cinema, and that it still has its heart beating for this…

BBC NEWS AT BBC.CO.UK/NEWS Supporters of Tunisia’s Club Africain donated more than $450,000 in one day as they battled to save the financially troubled club. The donors included one blind fan who chose to forgo the medicine he had been saving for in order to help his beloved team. Club Africain, which is Tunisia’s second-oldest football club and one of the best-known teams in Africa, has been deducted six points and sanctioned financially because of unpaid salaries to former players. To help the club, which was established in 1920, the Tunisian Football Federation set up a crisis management committee to…

VOICE OF AMERICA Authorities in Côte d’Ivoire say they rescued 137 child trafficking victims being groomed to work on cocoa plantations or in prostitution. Police rescued the children after surrounding the eastern town of Aboisso and carrying out a two-day search of cars, farms and nearby villages. Officials say the children ranged in age from 6 to 17 and were brought into Côte d’Ivoire from Benin, Ghana, Niger, Nigeria and Togo. The victims were in the care of a charity in Aboisso while authorities searched for their parents. Senior police officials say they plan to increase operations to stop child…

VOICE OF AMERICA During a historic visit to Washington, D.C., Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok said one goal looms above all others as he leads the country’s transitional government: bringing peace to the war-ravaged nation. “Our number one top priority is to stop the war and build the foundation of sustainable peace,” he said. “Essentially to stop the sufferings of our people in the IDP [internally displaced people] camps and the refugee camps. We think the opportune time of stopping this war is now.” Hamdok said he was heartened by the resilience on display when he visited the Zam Zam…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE French and British air force chiefs vowed to pursue the joint fight against extremists in the heart of the Sahel, even as the shadow of Brexit loomed over their countries.  “We’ve got a long, fabulous history of working alongside each other, and I don’t expect anything to change anytime soon,” Royal Air Force Chief of the Air Staff Mike Wigston told AFP on a visit to the Malian city of Gao with French counterpart Philippe Lavigne. “If anything, we are going to work stronger together.” Backed by 100 British personnel, France has a 4,500-strong Sahel force supporting national…