ADF

By LISA FERDINANDO, DOD NEWS More than two dozen participants from 11 African nations learned how to hold United Nations peacekeepers accountable for sexual misconduct and other crimes during a course for national investigative officers in Entebbe, Uganda, in January 2018. The course focused on how peacekeepers should address sexual exploitation and abuse allegations, said Mark Swayne, acting U.S. deputy assistant secretary of defense for stability and humanitarian affairs. Oversight will result in greater accountability for people and units responsible for abuses. “Ultimately, this should lead to a decrease in these incidents, which not only severely harm the people and…

U.S. Africa Command Staff Two oft-repeated Swahili proverbs state, “One finger alone cannot kill a louse,” and “One pole cannot support a house.” The meaning is clear: Tasks both small and large require cooperation. Security is no different. The threats facing the African continent are complex and interconnected. Terror groups hop across borders, internal disputes send refugees fleeing by the thousands and natural disasters can fan across a region. Combating these threats requires innovation. Multilateral interventions must take new forms and include a variety of partners. African security leaders are showing that they’re up to the challenge. One example is…

We are aware of the various collaborative initiatives and concerted efforts that have been put in place, not only to ensure a secure Africa, but to attain global security. These collaborative efforts justify the theme of the summit: Unity is Strength.  Drawing from the theme, I am aware that countries in Africa have independently, or in collaboration, made efforts to eliminate threats such as terrorism, insurgency, piracy, proliferation of small arms and economic crises. I hope that the deliberation during the summit has offered opportunities to learn from the shortcomings, successes and strategies employed to neutralize or defeat threats of…

Story and photos by THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION On a sunny afternoon in Western Kenya, Eunice Shigali filled a 10-liter jerry can with water, then unfolded it like a suitcase and placed it in the sun. After a few hours, a green smiley face appeared on the side of the black container, telling her the water was clean and hot and ready to cook ugali, a staple dish made of maize flour. “I used to light a fire to boil water for drinking, washing and cooking,” the 48-year-old mother of three told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. “Now I save time because…

THOMSON REUTERS FOUNDATION Francis Okello wanted to kill himself after he was blinded at the age of 12 by an unexploded bomb while digging in his family garden in northern Uganda. “I would have nightmares,” said Okello, who lives in an area that has been scarred by two decades of conflict between the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) rebels and Ugandan forces. “Life became worthless because I was stigmatized.” Hope returned to Okello’s life when he bonded with a dog called Tiger at his boarding school. At the time he felt ashamed of having to wake people up to guide him…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE A pioneering “drone academy” in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, set up by the Ivoirian Electricity Co. (CIE) plans to revolutionize infrastructure inspections and reduce costs. CIE will train about 20 young pilots to inspect its high-voltage lines, which stretch more than 25,000 kilometers across the country. “We have a lot of problems with vegetation; we need to clear it all the time, and it’s difficult because it’s all across the whole country,” said pilot Benjamin Mathon, who is in charge of CIE’s drone and youth training program. Dirt tracks that are impassable after heavy rain, widespread areas of tropical…

Africa Leads in Missions and Participation ADF STAFF African nations distinguish themselves in United Nations and African Union peacekeeping missions on the continent and worldwide. The continent also is home to half — seven of 14 — of all active U.N. missions. In March 2018, there were 91,058 people serving in 14 peacekeeping missions and eight special political missions. Of that total, 10,679 served as police officers, 79,063 served as troops or staff officers, and 1,316 were U.N. military experts on mission (UNMEM). Nations on the African continent contribute the lion’s share of security personnel to United Nations peacekeeping missions…

A New Fighting Force Seeks to Secure the Region Against Jihadists and Illicit Trafficking ADF STAFF Thick, black smoke spewed into the sky above the city of Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, in March 2018, evidence that radical jihadists again had attacked the bustling capital in Africa’s western Sahel region. The two-pronged attack targeted the French Embassy and Burkina Faso’s military headquarters. The assault killed eight Burkinabe Soldiers and eight assailants. Eighty other people were injured. It was the third extremist attack in the city in just more than two years. Security Minister Clément Sawadogo told journalists that the attack appeared to…

Multilateral Interventions Carry Enormous Promise and Challenges ADF STAFF In early 2017, The Gambia was hurtling toward a crisis. Its longtime president, Yahya Jammeh, had lost the presidential election but refused to accept the results and leave office. His opponent, Adama Barrow, fled the country fearing for his life, prompting his supporters to take to the streets in protest. But on the way to a violent clash, something unusual happened: Five countries in the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) banded together and sent a 7,000-person force to the border of the country. Jammeh was given an ultimatum: Depart…

ADF STAFF In the troubled Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), violence and displacement have become familiar, especially in the east. Local militias and fighters from neighboring countries have exploited the chaos for years now. Among those dangerous groups is the Allied Democratic Forces, a Ugandan-based group that has operated in the DRC since the 1990s. In a series of massacres since 2014 — most by hatchet and machete — the group has killed nearly 1,000 people, Reuters reported. In December 2017, the Allied Democratic Forces killed 15 Tanzanian peacekeepers. The ensuing joint military operation by the DRC and Uganda against…