It is said that it is only in the service to one’s fellow human that one’s mettle is truly tested. And the Armed Forces of democratic South Africa can be justifiably proud of having produced Soldiers of resolve, of steadfastness and of great patriotism. Through National Armed Forces Day we want to display to our people the capabilities and state of readiness of our Armed Forces. We also want to expand the public’s understanding of the military’s function and purpose in our society. We all recall the iconic image of a young mother, clutching her newborn baby, Rosita, as she…
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Algeria’s pyramid tombs, called the Jeddars, are unique relics of an ancient era. The 13 monuments, whose square stone bases are topped with angular mounds, are on a pair of hills near Tiaret, 250 kilometers southwest of the capital, Algiers. Built between the fourth and seventh centuries, the tombs are believed to have been the final resting places for Berber royalty. Some are as tall as 18 meters. Algerian authorities and archaeologists are pushing to get the Jeddars listed as a UNESCO World Heritage site. About 20 archaeology students and their teachers have been working at the monuments. When the…
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Malawi has launched the world’s first malaria vaccine in a program to prevent a disease that kills hundreds of thousands across Africa and around the world each year. Mosquirix was rolled out in the capital, Lilongwe, in April 2019. It was extended to Ghana and Kenya weeks later. The program aims to immunize 360,000 children ages 2 and under in the three countries to assess effectiveness and whether the delivery process is feasible. Four successive doses must be administered on a strict timetable to be successful, and the children must continue to use other preventive measures such as…
In 2015, a puff adder bit 4-year-old Chepchirchir Kiplagat. She lost the use of the left side of her body. Sleeping beside her, 2-year-old Scholar also was bitten. She died. “We saw two blood spots on her (Chepchirchir’s) wrist,” said their father, Jackson Chepkui, in the village of Embosos in Kenya. “That’s how we were able to conclude that they were bitten by a snake.” Chepkui traveled 160 kilometers to the hospital in Eldoret. The trip included two stops at clinics along the way and took nine hours. Chepchirchir was in the hospital for two months. Snakes bite 5.4 million…
In response to the crisis of deforestation, Soldiers have planted millions of trees Kenyan environmentalist Francis Muhoho says his country is risking an environmental crisis by cutting down too many trees. “Kenya lost an average of over 200,000 hectares of forests per year between 2000 and 2014,” he said in March 2019, as reported by the Kenya News Agency. “This is both in government and private forests.” Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said that so far this century, East Africa has lost a total of 6 million hectares of forest, some of it containing plants and animals found nowhere else on…
Female Malawian Peacekeepers Win the Trust of Locals by Attending to Basic Needs CAPT. WILNED KALIZGAMANGWERE CHAWINGA, MALAWI DEFENCE FORCE International peacekeeping in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) is entering its third decade after years of regional conflict and two multinational wars. The detritus of this unrest has left behind instability exacerbated by a mix of violent groups, especially in the DRC’s eastern region and neighboring countries. Now the country is home to the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO), a 21,000-strong multinational peacekeeping force that works to bring peace to the region using “all…
Bintou Keita, U.N. Assistant Secretary-General for Africa, Discusses the Benefits and Challenges of Bringing More Women into Peacekeeping Originally from Guinea, Bintou Keita joined the United Nations in 1989 and is now assistant secretary-general for Africa. She has served in various roles, including deputy special representative for the African Union-U.N. Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID), and chief of staff and director of operations for the United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response. This interview has been edited to fit this format. ADF: Could you share a bit about yourself with our readers? Was there anything in your personal or professional…
Senegal’s southern Casamance region has long been isolated from the more populous north by a geographic peculiarity: The Gambia, and the namesake river that runs most of its length. In January 2019, the presidents of both nations celebrated the opening of a bridge that spans the river, linking both banks of The Gambia and the two regions of Senegal. The Trans-Gambia Corridor bridge ends years of isolation and difficult travel for people in the two nations along both sides of the river. “Given the geography of The Gambia and Senegal with a river dividing both countries in two halves, I…
As the Stubborn Disease Continues in the DRC, Responders Must Build Trust to Succeed Dr. Jean-Christophe Shako went to Butembo, Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), to fight a fierce and dangerous enemy. But first he needed to make a friend. Shako, Ebola response coordinator in the eastern DRC town, is a veteran of four Ebola outbreaks in Africa. He wrote of his experiences with the current disease crisis in February 2019 for The New Humanitarian, an online news outlet. He recalled his team’s experience in Guinea during the height of the West African pandemic in 2014. It was then…
Institutions Look for New Methods to Produce Better Peacekeepers Peacekeeping is sometimes called a paradox because it requires the ability to use force and the restraint not to use it. Former United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjold summed up the challenge when he said: “Peacekeeping is not a job for Soldiers, but only Soldiers can do it.” Modern peacekeepers face daunting tasks. They must deploy to a foreign country where they may not speak the language. They must quickly assess the situation on the ground, where a war has just been fought or is ongoing. They must encourage dialogue between warring…