ADF

Nations Across the Continent Are Seeing the Benefits of Educated, Well-Trained Noncommissioned Officers ADF STAFF Photos by STAFF SGT. GRADY JONES/U.S. AFRICA COMMAND Militaries are generally composed of an officer corps at the top and a high number of enlisted Soldiers, Sailors or Airmen at the bottom. But between the two is a layer of personnel crucial to efficient and professional operations: noncommissioned officers, or NCOs. NCOs’ duties can differ from one national military to another, but in general they are charged with training and sustaining a mission-ready force and executing strategies that originate in the officer corps. In most…

A Cape Verdean Perspective on Africa Endeavor Capt. Domingos Tavares, Armed Forces of Cape Verde Digitalization has transformed life in Africa. Internet and mobile technologies are now with us wherever we go. We rely on this technology for everything from mobile banking to directing satellites used to monitor crops and track climate events. For the most part, this digital permeation has been positive. But the challenges to the continent also are becoming clear. Criminals are taking advantage of a deficit of cyber security laws, and traditional crime is taking on an international dimension by using the web. African countries lost…

The Values of the Next Generation of African Security Sector Leaders By Dr. Kwesi Aning and Dr. Joseph Siegle The role of African security sector professionals has changed greatly in recent decades. Leaders today face a dizzying array of challenges from armed militias, violent extremist organizations, terrorism, piracy, insurgency and instability caused by political crises, to name a few. These threats span domestic, regional and transnational theaters — sometimes simultaneously. Contemporary African security sector professionals, consequently, are required to be enormously versatile. Although considerable attention is given to Africa’s security challenges, relatively less reflection has been paid to the security sector…

ADF STAFF Just four years ago, Liberia’s West Point was reeling from the biggest Ebola outbreak in West Africa’s history. As the international community battled the ferocious virus, the Liberian military enforced a quarantine that put residents on edge in the sprawling community of 75,000 people. West Point was formed in the 1940s in the capital city of Monrovia when workers dredged and created the nation’s first shipping port. West Point expanded as war and migration pushed more and more people into the capital. Ebola has long since receded as an immediate threat for West Point’s residents, but the impoverished…

Reverence, Respect and Credibility Brig. Gen. Saleh Bala Discusses the Need for a Culture of Professionalism in Africa’s Militaries Retired Brig. Gen. Saleh Bala spent 29 years in the Nigerian Army. He is a former military chief of staff of the United Nations Mission in Côte d’Ivoire and a former chief of staff for the Nigerian Army Infantry Center. He has a long history of teaching the fundamentals of professionalism to Soldiers, from cadets to midcareer officers. He served as an instructor at the Nigerian Army Infantry School, an instructor at the Nigerian Defense Academy and was on the directing…

Africa’s greatest leaders found a variety of ways to govern, including delegating authority and leading by example. ADF STAFF In his autobiography, Nelson Mandela recalled how he met the president of Tanzania in March, 1990. “We arrived in Dar es Salaam … and I met Julius Nyerere, the newly independent country’s first president,” Mandela wrote in Long Walk to Freedom. “We talked at his house, which was not at all grand, and I recall that he drove himself in a simple car, a little Austin. This impressed me, for it suggested that he was a man of the people.” That…

Holdovers from History Hamper the Vast Nation’s Ability to Overcome Instability 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, at least five members of the DRC’s 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…

In asymmetric wars, more needs to be done to protect people caught in the middle ADF STAFF A small bus loaded with 24 people from Burkina Faso was crossing into Mali, en route to a weekly market in the town of Boni. Nine kilometers from the market, the vehicle triggered a land mine planted by Malian insurgents. All 24 people, including four babies and their mothers, were killed in the January 2018 incident. It’s a common story. At least 600,000 African civilians in 27 countries have been killed in the past 20 years during conflicts, with millions more wounded and…

BBC NEWS AT BBC.CO.UK/NEWS Ivoirian Aristide Bancé is football’s version of Marco Polo. Since debuting for the Ivoirian club Stade d’Abidjan in 2000, the 33-year-old has played for 20 professional clubs, including time in Belgium, Burkina Faso, Dubai, Egypt, Finland, Germany, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Qatar, South Africa, Turkey and Ukraine. He currently plays for Al Masry of Egypt, where football matches are under tight security. “It’s a shame that matches here are played behind closed doors at the moment, for security reasons,” he explained. “It would be really super if the supporters could come back into the stadiums.” In 2012, thousands…

BRAND SOUTH AFRICA A South African chef was named the best female chef in the world for 2017 at The Best Chef Awards in Poland. Chantel Dartnell, owner of the acclaimed Restaurant Mosaic in Tshwane, has twice been named South African Chef of the Year, and her Pretoria restaurant is one of the country’s top-rated dining spots. She trained at a number of restaurants in the United Kingdom. She uses what she learned to create classic dining and uniquely South African menus that have earned Restaurant Mosaic several local and international food awards, including a Diners’ Club World’s 50 Best…