ADF

U.S. AFRICA COMMAND STAFF The future of warfare and peacekeeping is all about finding smarter, more precise and more effective ways to use military might. Technology will play a major role in this. Tech tools that are new today will become integrated into the daily life of the warfighter tomorrow. Change is constant. Cellphones, computers and GPS devices were unheard of on the battlefield 20 years ago. Now they are essential to the planning and execution of military missions. The next generation of technology will be no different. It is incumbent on Soldiers, peacekeepers and police officers to embrace this…

As we mark International Peacekeepers’ Day, you must rededicate yourselves to your declared professional mission and values as encapsulated in our Code of Conduct. You need to ensure that you consistently strive to deserve the trust that the people of our country and wherever you are deployed beyond our borders granted you. Through your dedicated work and discipline, rise to the challenges before you. Warfighting places the greatest demand on military forces. The conduct of military operations is demanding in the physical, psychological, mental and moral sense, and that is why forces are trained and equipped for that. Therefore, it…

REUTERS Boko Haram militants in May 2017 released 82 schoolgirls who had been kidnapped from the northeastern Nigerian town of Chibok. The terrorist group, which kidnapped about 270 girls in April 2014, has killed 20,000 people and displaced more than 2 million during a seven-year insurgency aimed at creating an Islamic caliphate in northeastern Nigeria. Dozens escaped in the initial melee, but more than 200 remained missing for more than two years. Nigeria thanked Switzerland and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) for helping to secure the release of the 82 girls after “lengthy negotiations,” the president’s office…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE West African schoolgirls, some not yet teenagers, have taken a starring role at an engineering competition in Senegal, crushing stereotypes with their robotics expertise. The Pan-African Robotics Competition in Dakar, Senegal, in May 2017 reflected the growing importance of science education as a way to spur the economy and spark development. Rows of young women from Senegal, The Gambia and Mali screamed for their teams as robots picked up plastic cones and dropped them onto markers. Senegal’s Mariama-Ba all-girls academy won the high school category for a “made in Africa” pump solution to flooding, and girls were well-represented…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Ahmed Harrad spends his days crisscrossing northern Morocco trying to persuade locals to protect the endangered Barbary macaque monkey. “If nothing is done, this species will disappear within 10 years,” warns a poster on his aging four-wheel-drive vehicle. The only species of macaque outside Asia, it lives on leaves and fruits and can weigh up to 20 kilograms. The species once lived throughout North Africa and parts of Europe. Having disappeared from Libya and Tunisia, it now lives in mountainous areas of Algeria and Morocco’s northern Rif region. Another semiwild population of about 200 in Gibraltar are the…

The Democratic Republic of the Congo Serves as a Testing Ground for Using Unmanned Aerial Surveillance ADF STAFF The blue, mineral-rich waters of Lake Kivu separating Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) form a busy trade route. Merchants load goods into canoes, motorboats and ferries. The route is vital to local commerce, but all involved know the risks. The lake is not always calm, and the boats are not all sturdy. On May 5, 2014, a type of boat known locally as a “canot rapide” capsized in strong winds. About 24 were aboard — most without life vests — and…

Projecting Force to Protect a Country MONUSCO’s Force Commander Says Technology Helps Peacekeepers Overcome Challenges in the DRC, but Improvements Are Needed PHOTOS BY MONUSCO Since 2016, Lt. Gen. Derrick Mbuyiselo Mgwebi of South Africa has served as force commander of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO), the largest U.N. peacekeeping mission in the world. Mgwebi has more than 35 years of military experience and has held multiple senior posts for the South African National Defence Force (SANDF), including his current position as chief of joint operations. Previously, he served as the SANDF director of…

U.N. Police and Soldiers Can Enhance Peacekeeping With Off-the-Shelf Tools ADF STAFF As the summer heat baked the Central African Republic (CAR), tensions between ex-Séléka and Anti-Balaka forces boiled near the town of Kaga-Bandoro in August 2016. Clashes continued in September, killing four and displacing more than 3,000 people in nearby Ndomété. By October, the region was a powder keg. Peacekeepers dismantled illegal checkpoints around Kaga-Bandoro, angering ex-Séléka forces, who had used them as a source of income. Security began to deteriorate, and nongovernmental organization (NGO) staffers became targets of violence. By October 11, about 2,000 Muslims demonstrated peacefully, denouncing…

Surveillance Technology Helps Secure Border Zones ADF STAFF As Tunisia emerges from the most tumultuous period in its history, one thing has become clear: It must secure its borders. This fact was illustrated during a bloody attack in March 2016 in which dozens of ISIS-aligned fighters entered the country from Libya, overran the border town of Ben Guerdan, and opened fire on police and Army buildings. After a gunbattle that lasted hours, more than 50 people lay dead, including 36 militants. The incident grew even more disturbing when the attackers were identified, and most were found to be Tunisians. Some of…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE There is reason for hope in Senegal’s Casamance region. New houses dot a landscape once dominated by abandoned ruins full of bullet holes, though the specter of a 35-year conflict still haunts its villages. Separatist rebels of the Mouvement des Forces Democratiques de Casamance (MFDC) began fighting for independence more than three decades ago but have long ceased once-frequent attacks on the Senegalese Army. As residents return to previously unsafe areas, many are asking when a conflict that is technically ongoing, if all but invisible, officially will end. “I fled to [regional capital] Ziguinchor in 1991 and came…