ADF

The Electronic Revolution Is Bringing Rapid Change to the Continent, in Good and Bad Ways Dr. Eric Young, George C. Marshall Center Faculty As the electronic revolution sweeps across Africa, cyber security is a major emerging challenge. Africa has the fastest-growing Internet penetration and growth in cyberspace of any continent and is erasing the global digital divide. Africa’s e-revolution is growing economies, changing social structures and upending political systems. Masaai ranchers in Kenya now can check market prices for their cattle on mobile phones. Africa’s new undersea fiber-optic cables, which offer high-speed Internet access, are leading an entrepreneurial boom in Kenya…

Chadian Troops Partner with U.S. and French Trainers to Prepare for Peacekeeping in Mali ADF STAFF When Lt. Col. Jeffrey Powell and his team of 68 trainers arrived in Chad, conditions were less than ideal. They faced heat, equipment shortages, language barriers and an aggressive deadline of 32 days. Powell, a member of the U.S. Army’s 5th Squadron, 4th Cavalry Regiment, was there to partner with a French defense contracting company and Chadian military trainers to prepare 1,425 Chadian Soldiers for deployment as part of the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA). At an outpost 80 kilometers…

Mauritania’s chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces tells ADF how his country seeks to offer stability in a troubled region. During the week of May 19, 2014, Lt. Gen. Mohamed Ghazouani, Mauritania’s chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces, traveled to Tampa, Florida, in the United States, to attend the Special Operations Forces Industry Conference. While at the conference, Ghazouani participated in events alongside special operations commanders from 84 countries, as well as senior governmental officials, top academics and leaders from U.S. Special Operations Command. Ghazouani has served in a variety of roles in Mauritania’s security sector,…

Nigeria’s College Includes a ‘Think Tank’ for Research ADF STAFF First came battle command, the science of directing and leading armed forces against an enemy. Battle command was the core curriculum of the first military staff colleges, also known as war colleges or defense colleges. The first modern staff college dates to 1810 and focused largely on military strategy. But Africa’s staff colleges, among the youngest in the world, have evolved far beyond the study of the art of war. Nigeria’s National Defence College (NDC) is a case in point. Although its 11-month program includes the traditional training of senior…

Under Pressure, Boko Haram Is Changing Its Tactics ADF STAFF In a neighborhood of mud-brick buildings in Diffa, Niger, young men say there is one opportunity for work that is always lurking in the shadows. The job offers come from recruiters for the terror group Boko Haram, who approach teens with offers of cash and a way out. In a 2014 interview with the BBC, recruits in Niger said they are paid as much as 500,000 Nigerian Naira (about $3,000) to join the group. If they are willing to follow the recruiter back to Nigeria, they are sometimes given Tramol,…

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Wilson Kipsang won the London Marathon for the second time on April 13, 2014, producing a course record. He managed to hold off a strong field despite arriving late in the British capital after his passport was stolen. The 32-year-old Kenyan completed the 42.2-kilometer route in two hours, four minutes, 29 seconds — 11 seconds inside the previous fastest run in London by Kenyan Emmanuel Mutai in 2011. “I was really feeling good, and I controlled the guys,” said Kipsang, who also won in 2012. Kenyan compatriot Stanley Biwott was 26 seconds adrift in second, and deposed…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Headlines portray the Sahara as a barren desert that claims the lives of many migrants. But Nigerian poet Tade Ipadeola had a different story to tell — and it was worth $100,000. Ipadeola’s The Sahara Testaments won the most lucrative writing award in Africa, the Nigeria Prize for Literature, for his account of the history and culture of the world’s largest desert. He said the Sahara’s true richness has been distorted and overlooked. “I wanted to show that it is not just a barren wasteland,” the 43-year-old poet said. “The Sahara was the prime location for some of…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Until 2013, the only tourist attraction in the Benin town of Ouidah was a massive monument to the area’s bleak history as a slave trading hub. Now the town is the home to something entirely different — the first Sub-Saharan Africa museum dedicated to contemporary African art. The Zinsou museum, in an ornate 92-year-old villa, has attracted 13,000 visitors since its launch in November 2013 — an impressive tally for an out-of-the-way town in the sparsely visited nation of Benin. The reputation — and monetary value — of contemporary African art has steadily risen in recent years. Curators…

Nigeria’s ambassador to the United States Ade Adefuye speaks to U.S. Under Secretary for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman at a meeting in Abuja, Nigeria in 2013. [AFP/GETTY IMAGES] ADF STAFF Nigeria and the United States have pledged to become more involved as economic partners in the coming years, officials said at a March 2014 meeting in Washington. The goal is to raise the level of American foreign development investment in Nigeria to $8 billion annually, up from $5.4 billion in 2012, the Vanguard of Nigeria reported. Ade Adefuye, the Nigerian ambassador to the United States, said the two countries also…

REUTERS The idea of Japanese consumers eating sushi exported from a tiny African country with no coastline may sound improbable, but the kingdom of Lesotho is pulling it off. Hatched in the boardroom of South African bullion producer Gold Fields, a project called Highlands Trout is now exporting 2,000 metric tons of rainbow trout a year, mainly to Japanese supermarket chain CGC. “Made-in-Africa sushi” is a new twist in the African/Asian trade story, offering hope that a poor, landlocked country can tap its natural resources to produce and export a high-value product to discerning consumers. It also highlights the limits…