ADF

JAMES JEFFREY/IPS AFRICA In the Entoto Mountains, workers are completing  Ethiopia’s first observatory. Studying stars and galaxies will be vital for this nation’s development, scientists say. “Space technology is often considered a luxury only for developed countries,” said Solomon Belay, director of the $4 million Entoto Observatory and Research Centre. “But it’s actually a basic and vital need for development.” Ethiopia’s topography and climate make it ideal for housing observatories. Another observatory is planned near the historic city of Lalibela. The observatories will provide training and research facilities for students at 33 Ethiopian universities and will attract international academics and…

SSR Offers Stability for Governments and PROTECTION for Civilians ADF STAFF Photos by THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Leaders considering the necessity of security sector reform (SSR) need look no farther than the small West African nation of Guinea-Bissau. Today the country of nearly 1.7 million is known primarily as a “narcostate” for the impunity with which South American drug traffickers push cocaine through the nation on the way to Europe. Instability has plagued Guinea-Bissau since its independence from Portugal in 1974. No president has finished a full term in office. The European Union began SSR in 2008 but suspended the effort…

Vice Adm. Mathew Quashie, Ghana’s chief of defence staff, spoke with ADF after he gave the keynote address on June 25, 2014, at the U.S. Africa Command Academic Symposium at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in Accra, Ghana. The interview has been edited for length and clarity. ADF: Perhaps we could start with a bit of background about yourself and some of the career posts that have led you to your current position. Quashie: Like every one of us, I started from the basics. I did my basic-level naval course at the Britannia Royal Naval College in Dartmouth,…

ADF STAFF They are called “born frees,” South Africans born after the nation’s transition from apartheid to democracy. On May 7, 2014, 20 years after Nelson Mandela became the first black president, the first group of born frees went to the polls to have their say in the country’s future. “It is great voting for the first time,” 18-year-old Mawande Nkoyi told Reuters in the Cape Town township of Langa. “Now I have a say in the country’s election and what is happening. It is something new in my life.” Twenty million South Africans — about 40 percent of the…

A Commitment to Voluntary Security Principles in Ghana Helps Protect Oil Wealth and a Way of Life ADF STAFF When Ghana’s Jubilee oil field was discovered in 2007, it had the potential to be a game changer for the West African nation. With as many as 3 billion barrels of sweet crude oil sitting just 60 kilometers offshore, Ghana had joined an exclusive club of oil-producing countries. Revenue from the site promised to pay for improved public services, infrastructure and to help lift many Ghanaians out of poverty. Years later, oil has begun to flow at a rate of about…

African Nations Move Beyond Their Borders in Adopting Standards for Their Militaries and Police Forces ADF STAFF In an impressive show of unity, more than 1,000 people representing 25 African Union nations met in Yaoundé, Cameroon, in June 2013. Their goal: Stop crime in the Gulf of Guinea. The representatives, including 13 heads of state, adopted a document called “Code of Conduct Concerning the Repression of Piracy, Armed Robbery Against Ships, and Illicit Maritime Activity in West and Central Africa.” The document recognized codes of conduct already adopted by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), the Economic Community…

Security Professionals Weigh the Risks and Rewards of Partnering with Non-State Security Actors ADF STAFF In May 2013, a group of young men in northern Nigeria’s Borno State decided to fight back against Boko Haram. Crudely armed with sticks, machetes and garden implements, they set up roadblocks and fanned out on foot patrol. They inspected cars for bombs or weapons and gathered information from the community to make “citizen’s arrests” of suspected extremists. Their formation roughly corresponded with the state of emergency declared in three northern states, so they decided to call themselves the Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) in…

The country’s rebirth after its civil war sets a new standard for reconstitution of the military ADF STAFF When Sierra Leone’s civil war ended in January 2002, the country was in shambles. Some 50,000 people had died, and more than 2 million people — a third of the population — were refugees. There had been atrocities. Buildings and roads were destroyed. The country’s records were gone. There was no intelligence and no security system. The level of infrastructure destruction was unprecedented; almost everything had to be rebuilt from scratch. The war, which began in 1991, also left the country awash…

Integrating  Women Into African Militaries Must Go Beyond Quotas and Traditional Roles ADF STAFF photos by REUTERS At one time, some of the fiercest and most capable Soldiers in Africa were women: the Amazon warriors of the Dahomey Kingdom. The all-female fighting force, recruited from captives and the indigenous population, also served as royal bodyguards to the king. The force was formed in the 17th century, growing out of a contingent created to hunt elephants. By the mid-19th century, the number of fighters had grown to between 1,000 and 6,000 women, comprising about a third of the Dahomey Army. The…

AMISOM The African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) has given 4,500 durable footballs to the government of Somalia to promote peace and help teach life skills to children and youth groups throughout the country. The One World Futbol Project donated the footballs to AMISOM through the United Nations Support Office. Speaking at a ceremony in August 2014, Lydia Wanyoto Mutende, acting head of AMISOM, said sports is one of the key pillars of social transformation and development. Wanyoto said Somalia and the Somali Football Association will distribute the footballs to schools, youth groups and disadvantaged groups across the country to…