African Union Forces Must Use Counternarratives to Unravel Al-Shabaab’s Recruitment Messaging BY LT. Col. DEO AKIIKI, UGANDAN MINISTRY OF DEFENCE Lt. Col. Deo Akiiki is head of strategic communications at the Uganda Ministry of Defence. He has led military information support operations to defeat al-Shabaab propaganda. He is an expert in crafting strategies to counter extremist narratives in print and electronic media. He holds a master’s degree in human rights and local governance from Uganda Martyrs University, and he graduated from the Marshall Center’s Program on Applied Security Studies. This article has been edited to fit this format. As a…
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ADF
ADF is a professional military magazine published quarterly by U.S. Africa Command to provide an international forum for African security professionals. ADF covers topics such as counter terrorism strategies, security and defense operations, transnational crime, and all other issues affecting peace, stability, and good governance on the African continent.
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE The equestrian art known as tbourida, inspired by the historical charges of the cavalrymen of Morocco, fascinated painter Eugene Delacroix two centuries ago and still draws enthusiastic crowds today. At the October 2016 Salon du Cheval show in El Jadida, western Morocco, thousands were enthralled by the spectacle of groups of riders in traditional dress charging in a line and then coming to a halt with a synchronized firing of their muskets in a deafening and pungent blast of gunpowder. The 15 finest troops of cavalrymen from across the North African country competed in the first King Mohammed…
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE With its beaches and year-round sun, Tunisia is not the most obvious home for the winter sport of ice hockey. But one man is determined to change that. In 2014, Ihab Ayed quit his job in finance in Paris to realize his dream of creating the North African country’s first ice hockey team. Ayed had dreamed of a Tunisian team playing the game internationally ever since he learned at age 5 how to hit a puck on ice. “It took me six years, from 2006 to 2012, to bring together 40 players from around the world,” said the…
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Hollywood plague movies usually are about a fictional viral outbreak that unleashes chaos and anarchy that can only be stopped by heroes who transcend the panic. That’s not true for 93 Days, a Nollywood film that opened in September 2016. It dramatizes the story of Nigeria’s response to the 2014 Ebola epidemic that killed more than 11,000 people in West Africa. Hundreds had already died from the disease in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone when Ebola surfaced in Nigeria as a Liberian Finance Ministry official, Patrick Sawyer, arrived in Lagos on July 20, 2014, visibly unwell. When it…
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Officials arrested a Nigerian man behind an online fraud network that engineered $60 million in scams and took in hundreds of victims worldwide. The scams originated in the southern oil city of Port Harcourt, according to the international police agency Interpol. The arrest was carried out with the support of Nigeria’s anti-graft agency, the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). “In one case, a target was conned into paying out $15.4 million,” Interpol said. “The network compromised email accounts of small to medium businesses around the world.” The suspect ran a network of at least 40 people working…
AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Japan announced plans to invest $30 billion in African projects by 2018, including $10 billion in infrastructure development. The announcement came at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development in Nairobi, Kenya, in August 2016. Thirty African heads of state attended. “This is an investment that has faith in Africa’s future,” said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. This marked the first time that the Tokyo International Conference on African Development was held in Africa. All five previous events were in Japan. The goal of the conference, organized jointly by the United Nations, the African Union, the World Bank…
REUTERS African nations are taking part in a global effort to preserve the seas for future generations. The United States joined more than 20 countries in announcing the creation of 40 new marine sanctuaries around the world to protect the ocean from climate change and pollution. The pledges came as part of the Our Ocean Conference in Washington, D.C., in September 2016. Among those pledging to create protected areas were Morocco, the Republic of the Congo and the Seychelles. The protected areas are meant to limit commercial development and human impacts on ocean ecosystems. Altogether, countries attending the conference announced…
BBC NEWS AT BBC.CO.UK/NEWS Britain, the European Union and the World Bank have announced a plan to create 100,000 jobs in Ethiopia to help tackle the migrant crisis. Two industrial parks will be built in the country at a cost of $500 million. Ethiopia, which proposed the plan, will be required to grant employment rights to 30,000 refugees. United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May said the project would be a model for how to support poorer countries housing large numbers of migrants. Ethiopia hosts more than 700,000 asylum seekers, mainly from Eritrea, Somalia and South Sudan. The deal, announced at…
ADF STAFF The Tanzania People’s Defence Force (TPDF) is playing a key role in distributing aid and rebuilding infrastructure after the earthquake that struck the far north of the country. In September 2016, a magnitude 5.7 earthquake killed 17 people and injured 360 in Bukoba. After the quake, President John Magufuli ordered the TPDF to assist where possible. “The disaster committee has asked the TPDF members to chip in, and they have already responded by allocating its engineering unit and some medical officers ready for the tasks,” Kagera Regional Commissioner Salim Kijuu, a retired major general, told Tanzania’s Daily News.…
ADF STAFF A Nigerian Army operation led to the release of 566 people from the hands of Boko Haram. Many of those released were children of the extremist group’s members. Among those freed in the September 2016 operation in the northeastern state of Borno were 355 babies. Brig. Gen. Victor Ezegwu of the Nigerian Army’s 7 Division handed over the former captives to state Gov. Kashim Shettima at a rehabilitation center run in partnership with the United Nations’ children agency, UNICEF, where they will receive medical care, Bloomberg News reported. Boko Haram has terrorized northeast Nigeria since 2009, when the group…