ADF

Ghanaian President John Dramani Mahama addressed the 68th United Nations General Assembly on September 26, 2013, in New York City days after terrorists attacked Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi, Kenya. This is an edited version of his remarks. Before I left Ghana to attend this assembly, I learned of the terrorist attack that took place in Nairobi, Kenya. I was shocked and deeply saddened to hear of the many lives that were lost to those senseless and cowardly acts of violence. As the death toll increased, so too did my grief, knowing that each additional number symbolized one more human…

IRIN “Plant doctor” Daniel Lyazi cuts apart a slime-covered cabbage at a farmers’ market in Mukono, central Uganda, where the devastating cassava brown streak disease first was identified in 2004. “There’s a small caterpillar which is eating the cabbage, and according to me, it’s a diamond-back moth,” he tells farmers who crowd around his table. Lyazi advises the cabbage grower to switch pesticides and plant some onions as an additional repellent to moths, and he fills out a form with this prescription before turning to the next “patient,” an undersize cassava tuber. Free “plant clinics” like this one were piloted…

VOICE OF AMERICA Kenyan wildlife officials have begun inserting microchips into rhinos in a bid to combat poachers, who kill the animals for their horns. Officials said the chips and accompanying scanners will let them track the animals and help authorities link recovered or confiscated horns to poaching cases.  The Kenyan Wildlife Service received the equipment from the World Wildlife Fund, whose Kenya spokesman Robert Magori said each rhino will have one chip implanted in its body and a second chip embedded in its horn.  “When a rhino is killed and the horn is hacked off and taken away, if…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Rwanda is trying to reinvent itself as a regional high-tech hub by rolling out free citywide, and eventually nationwide, wireless connectivity. “I came to use the Internet. Sometimes I download video and books,” said South Korean development worker Lee Il-mo, 31, a resident of Kigali for the past two years. “Before, I went to restaurants or coffee bars and I had to buy a drink, but here it’s a free area,” he said, sitting in Kigali City Tower — a zone slated as the city’s new tech hub and one of the first steps of the “Smart Kigali”…

Bringing Peace to Africa’s ‘Arc of Instability’ Will Require Action in the Security Sector and the Halls of Government ADF STAFF The 7,000-kilometer cross-continental journey that begins in the Horn of Africa and stretches across the Sahel into West Africa will pass through numerous conflict areas. The band of territory is rife with poverty, illicit trafficking, war, terrorism and ethnic unrest. The path shares common characteristics that have led it to be known by some as the “arc of instability.” In Somalia, al-Shabaab militants capitalized on years of lawlessness to dole out murder at home and beyond. Rebel groups hold…

Disease Outbreaks Can Quickly Overwhelm Resources, So Strengthening Military and Civilian Ties is Key ADF STAFF A highly contagious disease struck Nigeria in February 2006. By April of that year, 325,000 had been infected, and 223,000 had died. The virus spread to Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana and Niger as well. It had the power to cause widespread death and bring an entire industry to its knees. The disease, which began on a farm in Jaji, Nigeria, was a virulent strain of bird flu known as H5N1. Its casualties were chickens. Birds not killed by the infection were slaughtered to prevent…

Chad’s intervention in northern Mali offers lessons in resolve and sacrifice ADF STAFF A column of about 100 Chadian light vehicles, mostly Toyota Land Cruisers, left Chad’s capital, N’Djamena on January 20, 2013. The convoy curled around the Lake Chad basin before reaching the border with Niger. Days earlier, nearly 200 armored vehicles, including 90 Eland armored cars and 17 BMP tanks, were airlifted to Niger’s capital, Niamey. At the Niger border-crossing, Brig. Gen. Abdraman Youssouf Mery, commander of Chad’s elite groupement speciale anti-terroriste (SATG), halted the convoy and gathered his officers around him. “We are going outside of our borders now,”…

Lion Rouge Launches a New Era in U.S.-DRC Cooperation ADF STAFF The Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC) and the United States teamed up in September 2013 to conduct Lion Rouge. The 26-day military cooperation event brought together 225 FARDC officers and more than 40 U.S. personnel. One of Lion Rouge’s goals was to consolidate multiple security-related training events that previously took place across the DRC, in order to maximize resources and synchronize efforts. Organizers chose the Kitona Air Base (BAKI) as a focal point for the training because of its location — near where the…

Countering extremism online requires credibility and persistence ADF STAFF It is a heated battle in which emotions run high and shots fly back and forth. But in this confrontation, participants use words instead of weapons, and they are limited to 140 characters per volley. For several years, Maj. Emmanuel Chirchir, a public affairs officer for the Kenya Defence Forces, has been fighting an informational war on Twitter with the terrorist group al-Shabaab. He uses the social media site to antagonize his opponents, to correct misinformation and, most important, to speak directly to civilians, keeping them informed about the fighting on the…

ADF STAFF The wide, languid Niger River is Africa’s third-longest at 4,200 kilometers. It stretches in a boomerang shape from Guinea up as far north as Timbuktu, Mali, before dipping southward through Niamey, Niger, and ending in the Atlantic Ocean. Although the river is too shallow in many places for large boat traffic, small-scale merchants have used it as a commercial highway for centuries. An observer who stands on its banks in Niamey, Niger, at the right time of day will see boaters wielding long, thin paddles as they glide along in dugouts loaded with squash, fish or other goods.…