ADF

The AU’s African Peace and Security Architecture Must Overcome Challenges to Fulfill Its Mission By Tim Murithi/Institute For Justice And Reconciliation Tim Murithi, Ph.D., is the head of the Justice and Reconciliation in Africa Programme for the Institute for Justice and Reconciliation in Cape Town, South Africa, and a research fellow with the African Gender Institute, University of Cape Town. He is the author of several articles and books on the African Union. The use of collective African resources to solve security concerns on the continent has long been a dream of African leaders. Among its strongest proponents was Ghana’s…

CLUES Founded at the beginning of the 1st millennium B.C., this city started out as a Phoenician port. The city had existed for more than 600 years when one of its sons, Septimius Severus, became Roman emperor in 193 A.D. The Romans quartered a garrison here during the war against Jugurtha, king of Numidia, a kingdom which included modern Algeria and Tunisia. Rome integrated this port city into the province of Africa in 46 B.C. The ancient port, with its artificial basin, still exists with jetties, fortifications, storage areas and temples. ANSWER: The ruins of Leptis Magna, 130 kilometers east…

The sectarian violence in the Central African Republic has uprooted nearly 1 million people, and it is estimated that 2.2 million, about half the population, need humanitarian aid. Drug supplies to clinics and hospitals have been disrupted, and public infrastructure such as schools and government buildings has been destroyed. Now, a major food crisis is looming. While fulfilling immediate humanitarian needs is essential, the international community needs to help address the development gaps that led to the crisis in the first place. If it fails to do so, another crisis could soon happen again. As such, humanitarian action needs to…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Makoko, Nigeria, known as the “slum on stilts” and the “Venice of Africa,” hopes a new floating school will create a better future for children there. The school, built entirely by locals and launched in 2013, has a triangular frame that rises from the water like a half-built house submerged in a flood. The project, backed by the United Nations Development Programme, the Nigerian government and the Heinrich Boell Foundation, is the brainchild of local architect Kunlé Adeyemi. His design was inspired by life in Makoko, and he said that improving the neglected area required a new approach…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Can robots ease traffic chaos in the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo? A small cooperative, which developed the solution and is testing two robots, thinks so. And it wants to promote the concept across the country, Africa and the world. Kinshasa, a city of 10 million people, has a reputation for chaotic driving and huge traffic jams. Tricolor traffic lights are rare, many cars are old and battered, and not all drivers are mindful of road rules. “When the robot stops the traffic, you can see that everybody stops and the pedestrians can cross without…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Mandla Maseko, 25, of the Mabopane district near Pretoria, South Africa, will fly 103 kilometers into space in 2015 after winning a competition organized by a United States-based space academy. He beat 1 million other entrants from 75 countries to be selected as one of 23 people who will travel on an hourlong suborbital trip on the Lynx Mark II spaceship. The former civil engineering student will experience zero gravity and a journey that normally costs $100,000. Maseko, who still lives at home with his parents and four siblings, was named one of the winners on December 5,…

Taking Time to Engage Civilian Leaders Can Build Partnerships that Enhance Security The village of Gofat spreads out beyond the rocky crags that punctuate the southernmost sands of the Sahara in Niger. More than 1,000 people call it home, but the population shifts like the desert wind — at times topping 3,000 people, depending on the season. As the sun peeked above the horizon on February 27, 2014, a convoy of Soldiers, supplies and medical personnel made the lonesome drive into the village, 27 kilometers northeast of Agadez. They spent the day offering medical help to villagers and others from…

A Nigerien Colonel Stresses the Importance of Civilian Help in the Fight Against Extremism ADF STAFF Col. Mahamane Laminou Sani is director of military intelligence for the Nigerien Army (forces armées nigériennes — FAN) and is based in Niamey, Niger. He coordinated military and civilian activities at Exercise Flintlock 2014, which was held at four locations throughout Niger. Col. Sani sat down with ADF for a talk on March 1, 2014. The interview was conducted in English, and it has been edited for length and clarity. ADF: What things have stood out as being some of the high points of…

Cessna 208 Flight Crews Use New Skills to Save a Life ADF STAFF The annual Festival de L’Aïr in Iférouane, Niger, draws crowds from throughout the nation’s northern region. Those attending the event celebrated rich Tuareg culture with music, singing and dancing. Two men on their way to the festival never made it. Their SUV ran over an old land mine about 1 p.m. February 22. The blast tore through the SUV and amputated one man’s foot. The other passenger suffered trauma from the impact. Fortunately, two Nigerien military Cessna 208 airplanes were at an airstrip near the festival, and…

Adf staff A young boy sits on a stool, stares at a chalkboard, and writes in his notebook. His classroom is the porch of a home built during French colonial times in Bangui, Central African Republic (CAR). His improvised school makes him more fortunate than many children in the nation. As hundreds of thousands of people have fled their homes since unrest spread across the land, schooling has become a casualty. The CAR has been in turmoil since December 2012, when rebels overran the north and central regions. A March 2013 coup brought Michel Djotodia to power, and the country suffered…