ADF

Maj. Gen. Abdiweli Jama Gorod was named Somalia’s chief of Defence Forces (CDF) in 2017. He sat down with ADF at the African Land Forces Summit 2018 in Abuja, Nigeria, to discuss his career, his efforts to rebuild the Somali National Army (SNA) and his belief that the time is finally right to defeat extremism in the country. The interview was translated from Somali and has been edited to fit this format. ADF: Can you share a bit about your career path? Maj. Gen. Gorod: I joined the military in 1975 as part of the Somali National Air Force. I…

The African Union Mission in Somalia has refined its message to counter al-Shabaab ADF STAFF | photos by AMISOM The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) sometimes has struggled to get its message out. The mission had several false starts in trying to communicate with Somali civilians, people in the troop-contributing countries and the world in general. Now, over the course of the mission’s 11 years, its communications staff has learned to be flexible and to improvise. In May 2018, the mission began taking stock of itself and what it has accomplished — and invited journalists to participate in the process. The self-study took about…

Women Bring Value to Peacekeeping Missions, but Participation Hurdles Remain ADF STAFF Cpl. Laker Doris Patricia of the Ugandan People’s Defence Force drove a large supply truck every day. She carried everything from bullets to bombs. If she wasn’t twisting the truck’s huge steering wheel, she was on standby, ready to buckle up and trundle away. And she did it in the center of Somalia, one of the most dangerous places on Earth. Maj. Gen. Kristin Lund of Norway spent two years as force commander of the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus. She was the first woman to command…

Public and private interests team up to build a new kind of training facility in Cape Verde ADF STAFF Cape Verde would seem to be an unlikely location for an international military training center. The 10 islands comprising the nation are 570 kilometers west of the African continent in the North Atlantic Ocean. With a total area of just more than 4,000 square kilometers, Cape Verde is one of the smallest members of the African Union. But for a variety of reasons, it is seen as the ideal spot for a $125 million training center dedicated to African security forces. The…

ADF STAFF After becoming Ghana’s first skeleton racer in the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea, Akwasi Frimpong is planning to compete in the 2022 Olympics in China. Frimpong, 32, lived in a one-room home in Ghana until he was 8, when his mother moved to the Netherlands. By high school, Frimpong was one of the best sprinters in the country. He became the Dutch National junior champion, earning 16 medals. He planned on running in the 2012 Summer Olympics, but an injury kept him off the team. Refusing to give up on his Olympic dream, Frimpong learned to be…

VOICE OF AMERICA One of 2018’s biggest films premiered for African audiences in February in the Kenyan hometown of one of the film’s stars, actress Lupita Nyong’o. Based on a Marvel superhero comic, Black Panther is set in a fictional, technologically advanced African nation The Kisumu premiere drew several hundred people. Although the stars of the movie did not attend, that did not dampen the atmosphere. “To be honest, it’s a great honor that Kisumu is the first place in Africa that this movie is screened,” Kenyan actor Moses Oduwa said. “We are so happy that we are honored this…

BBC NEWS AT BBC.CO.UK/NEWS An ancient necropolis containing dozens of stone coffins and a necklace bearing a “message from the afterlife” has been discovered in Egypt. The site near the city of Minya, south of Cairo, is more than 2,000 years old and is expected to take another five years to excavate. Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Enany said it contained 40 sarcophagi, jewelry, pottery and a gold mask. He said there were burial shafts dating from the late Pharaonic period to the early Ptolemaic era of about 300 B.C. “This is only the beginning of a new discovery,” he told reporters.…

REUTERS The European Union plans to rapidly expand the training of Libyan Coast Guard personnel to stem migrant flows to Italy and to reduce deaths at sea. Rear Adm. Enrico Credendino, chief of the EU naval mission in the Mediterranean, said the EU’s Operation Sophia hopes to train 300 to 500 personnel by the end of 2018. Since 2016, the operation has trained 188 Libyans, which contributed to a sharp decline in the number of attempted crossings in the second half of 2017. Operation Sophia began monitoring the Libyan trainees in late 2017, providing GoPro video cameras to Libyan Coast…

GHANA NEWS AGENCY Security professionals in Ghana and their counterparts from U.S. Africa Command held a forum to better prepare for disasters. The event focused on the capabilities of the military, police, fire service, National Disaster Management Organisation (NADMO), the ambulance service and others to respond to mass-casualty events, particularly earthquakes. Speaking at the event, Ghanaian Minister of the Interior Ambrose Dery said preparation is essential because an earthquake could wipe out decades’ worth of development. “Apart from massive loss of human life, critical social and economic infrastructure is lost,” he said. “It may take several years for a less…

DEFENCEWEB Germany has given five patrol boats to the Nigerian Navy, which will use them to patrol Lake Chad and coastal creeks and deltas. The boats will be used, in part, to combat Boko Haram terrorists who have staged attacks around Lake Chad and have largely managed to elude Nigerian military patrols by hiding out on islands in the lake. “The five boats are part of the greater initiatives of Germany in enhancing the peace and security of partner governments,” said Ingo Herbert, consul general of the German Embassy. “The focus is to support partner countries in the fight against…