Africa Defense Forum
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.

‘Made in Ghana’ Vehicles Go on Sale

Story and photo by AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE A Ghanaian inventor and church leader who started out trying to make voice-controlled television sets is telling the world’s auto giants to move over. Kwadwo Safo Kantanka — nicknamed “Apostle”…

Mogadishu Prepares for Housing Boom

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Somalia’s elegant colonial villas were left in ruins by two decades of street fighting among warlords, and the seaside capital Mogadishu was dubbed the most dangerous city in the world. But now new housing estates…

King Jaja of Opobo

Jubo Jubogha started out as a slave and ended up a king in what is now southern Nigeria. Along the way, he became one of the richest men of his time. Today he is remembered as one of the master strategists of the 19th century. Jubo,…

Where am i?

CLUES This town is East Africa’s oldest and best-preserved Swahili settlement. Buildings were constructed with traditional Swahili techniques using coral, lime and mangrove poles. This community has been continuously inhabited…

The Algerian Experience

ADF STAFF Known as the “Black Decade,” the 1990s in Algeria were devastating. After a decision by the military to intervene and cancel elections in 1992, insurgents unleashed near-daily attacks against civilian and governmental targets…

Viewpoint

U.S. Africa Command Staff Some problems don’t have simple solutions. The confounding decision by a young man or woman to leave home and join a terror group such as ISIS, al-Shabaab or Boko Haram is one of those problems. An estimated…

Reforming a Radical

Programs to Deradicalize Extremists Are Necessary and Imperfect The idealized version of deradicalization is that it happens in an instant. A dedicated jihadist sees the light and chooses to walk away. In this version, he becomes horrified…