Africa Defense Forum - Africa Defense Forum

U.S. Africa Command Staff Not all security threats involve weapons. From droughts to earthquakes to floods, disasters across the globe often are deadlier and less predictable than warfare. Africa is no exception. From 1980 to 2008, there…

Dr. Ernest Bai Koroma is the fourth president of Sierra Leone. This is an edited and condensed version of an address he gave on May 8, 2013, at an event celebrating the launch of the National Disaster Response Trust Fund at the Miatta…

VOICE OF AMERICA With Kenya’s proximity to the Great Rift, once a hotbed of volcanic activity, the country is the biggest producer of geothermal energy on the continent. Thirteen percent of the national grid is powered by this renewable…

VOICE OF AMERICA Cameroon has been organizing collective marriages to formally unite couples, including some who have been together for 50 years without legal documentation. The change will protect the rights and property of women when…

Nelson Mandela: July 18, 1918 — December 5, 2013 “Although it has come at the advanced age of 95, Madiba’s death will create a huge vacuum that will be difficult to fill in our continent. He will be sorely missed by all who cherish love,…

Understanding the Cycles of Emergency Management Can Lessen the Impact of Disasters ADF STAFF Malawi’s hunger season lasts from August through March, and it has lengthened in recent years. Deforestation and climate change have disrupted…

Mobile phones and websites offer affordable options to keep information flowing before and after disaster ADF STAFF Catastrophe struck Kenya in late 2007 and early 2008. But the disaster wasn’t a flood, famine or earthquake. Protests in…

Uganda’s National Emergency Coordination and Operations Centre Offers a Model ADF STAFF In July 2013, three earthquakes shook Uganda’s Lake Albert region. The tremors caused minimal damage but reminded the country’s disaster response…

Brig. Gen. Lawrence Smith is the general officer commanding the 43rd South African Brigade of the South African National Defence Force (SANDF). He is a graduate of the Command and General Staff College at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, in the…

Joint Training at Shared Accord 13 Strengthens Two Infantries Before daybreak, a convoy of vehicles bumped down a dirt track pocked with deep ruts and termite mounds in the South African veld. The convoy included U.S. Humvees and South…