Africa Defense Forum - Africa Defense Forum

Léopold Sédar Senghor was an intellectual, a writer, a scholar, a statesman and the first president of Senegal. He wrote Senegal’s national anthem and said he considered himself first and foremost a poet. But his writings indicate that he…

U.S. Africa Command Staff Security begins with cooperation. Whether it is efforts in West Africa to stem the influx of illegal drugs from South America or bringing security to the continent’s ever-growing presence in cyperspace, countries…

The AU’s African Peace and Security Architecture Must Overcome Challenges to Fulfill Its Mission By Tim Murithi/Institute For Justice And Reconciliation Tim Murithi, Ph.D., is the head of the Justice and Reconciliation in Africa…

CLUES Founded at the beginning of the 1st millennium B.C., this city started out as a Phoenician port. The city had existed for more than 600 years when one of its sons, Septimius Severus, became Roman emperor in 193 A.D. The Romans…

The sectarian violence in the Central African Republic has uprooted nearly 1 million people, and it is estimated that 2.2 million, about half the population, need humanitarian aid. Drug supplies to clinics and hospitals have been…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Makoko, Nigeria, known as the “slum on stilts” and the “Venice of Africa,” hopes a new floating school will create a better future for children there. The school, built entirely by locals and launched in 2013, has a…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Can robots ease traffic chaos in the capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo? A small cooperative, which developed the solution and is testing two robots, thinks so. And it wants to promote the concept across…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Mandla Maseko, 25, of the Mabopane district near Pretoria, South Africa, will fly 103 kilometers into space in 2015 after winning a competition organized by a United States-based space academy. He beat 1 million other…

Taking Time to Engage Civilian Leaders Can Build Partnerships that Enhance Security The village of Gofat spreads out beyond the rocky crags that punctuate the southernmost sands of the Sahara in Niger. More than 1,000 people call it home,…

A Nigerien Colonel Stresses the Importance of Civilian Help in the Fight Against Extremism ADF STAFF Col. Mahamane Laminou Sani is director of military intelligence for the Nigerien Army (forces armées nigériennes — FAN) and is based in…