ADF

This area covers 400,000 hectares and includes 289 villages. The Tellem people lived here, mostly in caves, between the 11th and 16th centuries. The Dogon people succeeded the Tellem and live in the region to this day. The majority of the area is covered by plateaus and cliffs. ANSWER: The Cliff of Bandiagara, Mali

U.S. Africa Command Staff There’s no escaping the importance of logistics. Without the ability to effectively move and sustain troops, commanders’ plans aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on. In short, logistics can be the difference between a mission’s success and failure. This fact is agonizingly clear on the African continent, where conflicts erupt in regions that are difficult to reach by air or land. This remoteness hampers peacekeeping efforts and costs lives. The African Union recognizes the challenge, and logistics is a key component of its newly operational African Standby Force (ASF). To attain the goal of “silencing the…

This exercise demonstrates that Africa is serious about peace and that the continent is also serious about investing in peace. We often proclaim that we want African solutions to African problems. Through this exercise, we are demonstrating that readiness to solve our problems on the continent. We are indeed proud to proclaim today that Amani Africa II has been a tremendous success. We have taken a significant step toward bringing the African Standby Force and its Rapid Deployment Capability into operation. We have committed ourselves to silencing the guns on our continent by 2020, in alignment with our commitment to…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE At Lighthouse Grace Academy in Nairobi’s Kwangware suburb, students are using a new learning tool. It’s the “Kio Kit,” a digital classroom in a suitcase designed by local technology company BRCK. “The Kio Kit is a way to turn any classroom into a digital classroom,” said Nivi Mukherjee of BRCK Education, the subsidiary that launched the product in September 2015. “You open the box, and there are 40 tablets inside; there is a BRCK inside, and on the BRCK there is a Linux [open-source] server — so we can locally cache educational content and serve it up to…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE More than 1,000 Nigerians, out of the thousands who fled attacks by Boko Haram jihadists to neighboring countries, returned to their homeland at the end of 2015. Between December 14 and December 16, 1,187 Nigerians who had been sheltering across the border in Cameroon resettled in a refugee camp in the northeastern state of Adamawa “as a result of improvement in the security situation,” National Emergency Management Agency spokesman Sani Datti said. An additional 15,000 Nigerians were expected to return to their country in subsequent weeks, Datti said. Since August 2015, thousands of Nigerian citizens have come back…

BBC NEWS AT BBC.CO.UK/NEWS Morocco has launched the Noor 1 Ouarzazate solar thermal plant, the most ambitious project yet from a country determined to be a leader in clean energy. The giant plant will harness the sun’s energy to melt salt, which will hold its heat to power a steam turbine in the evenings. Morocco’s King Mohammed VI unveiled the Saudi-built plant — one of the world’s biggest — on February 4, 2016, The Associated Press reported. The mirrors will cover a space as large as the country’s capital, Rabat. The first phase will generate for three hours after dark.…

Logisticians Rely on Training and Core Principles to Keep Operations Running ADF STAFF The life of the logistician is not a glamorous one. Sometimes called “sustainers” or “loggies” or simply “the guys in the rear with the gear,” their job is to keep operations running smoothly. In fact, logistics officers say that if they’re doing their jobs correctly, no one will notice them. But to the trained eye, it is clear that what they do takes a lot of skill. They are, in many ways, the unsung heroes of successful military missions. They plan and carry out the movement and…

A Conversation with Brig. Gen. David Baburam, Former Head of AU Mission Support ADF STAFF Retired Brig. Gen. David Baburam served in the Kenya Defence Forces for 36 years. During his career he was commander of the Ordnance Corps, commandant of a military hospital and taught at the defense staff college. He spent four years at the African Union as head of the Mission Support Unit, which handles logistics for AU peacekeeping missions. He spoke to ADF by phone from his home in Nairobi. His comments have been edited to fit this format. ADF: Logistics are always one of the greatest…

As the African Union Sifts Through Lessons and Challenges, New Logistics Approaches Are Born More than two years after Ebola began its deadly march through Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, killing more than 11,300 people, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced what seemed like a miracle: The epidemic was over. January 14, 2016, marked 42 days since the last Ebola cases in Liberia had tested negative. Liberia’s last two patients — the father and younger brother of a 15-year-old victim — were discharged from a hospital on December 3, 2015. However, the good news did not last. On January 15, Sierra Leone…

Story and photos by REUTERS With music equipment laid out on an ironing board, disc jockey Evans Mireku Kissi waves his drumsticks as he plays his tunes to a small audience on an Accra street. The crowd in the Ghanaian capital watches as he mixes beats and dances around his stand during the show. Aside from the music, his quirky outfit — shirt and tie tucked into shorts under a waistcoat, thigh-high socks, brogues and a bonnet — also attracts attention. Kissi, also known as Steloo, is part of a group of artists, musicians and designers in Accra whose unconventional…