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The 2024 African Senior Enlisted Conference in Lilongwe, Malawi, brought noncommissioned officers from across the continent for four days of sharing best practices, networking, and professional development.

“NCOs are the backbone of the military all over the world,” Warrant Officer Sally Mussa of the Malawi Defence Force told the gathering. “We have cultures that prevent Senior Enlisted Officers from being empowered, and we need to change those cultures. We need to develop a deliberate strategy to develop our NCOs.”

According to the organizers, the September 9 to 13 conference brought together military leaders from 29 nations to nurture NCOs to think strategically, act decisively, and inspire ethically while emphasizing the military’s role in supporting the rule of law. The theme for the conference was Competent, Capable, Credible.

U.S. Africa Command co-hosted the conference with Malawian Defence Forces, as part of a long-term effort to collaborate with African partner nations to assist in developing professional enlisted leaders who are proficient in addressing African security needs.

“AFRICOM and its partners are committed to long-term investments in one of the continent’s greatest assets — its enlisted leadership,” said Sgt. Maj. Michael Woods, AFRICOM’s senior enlisted advisor. “Together, we’re building a future where African military forces are empowered, respected, and ready to face the challenges of tomorrow.”

Since the first conference in 2017, the partnership has created regional centers for excellence across the continent with the goal of developing Africa’s noncommissioned officer corps through its existing military academies.

“Surely such vital experience from long service coupled with education, this is the only way to create competent, capable, and credible non-commissioned officers,” Mussa said. “Having centers of excellence will assist all of us with producing such NCOs.”

Gen. P.V. Phiri, commander of the Malawi Defence Force, said that historically, senior enlisted officers’ roles in advising commanders and training troops in skills such as weapons and drills have been limited.

“This lack of exposure to mission-oriented thinking led to a gap in leadership development between senior enlisted leaders and commissioned officers,” Phiri told the gathering.

In response, the Malawi Defence Force developed a program to train sergeant majors to better understand their role in the military’s command structure so they can contribute effectively, Phiri said.

Phiri added that the conference events, including both formal sessions and informal get-togethers, provided a forum to share knowledge, outline best practices and build connections among NCOs across the continent.

“By working together, by learning from one another, and by championing the role of the senior enlisted corps, I am confident that we can meet the challenges we are facing head-on and build a more stable, secure, and prosperous Africa,” he said.

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The African Union has authorized more than 25 peace support operations across the continent over the past 20-plus years, but few have included community-oriented policing (COP) to counter extremism.

Meressa Dessu
, a senior researcher at the South Africa-based Institute for Security Studies (ISS), recently wrote that it is time for that to change as violent extremism spreads across the continent.

The hallmarks of COP — problem solving, partnership, service delivery, empowerment and accountability — help police officers build trust through sustained engagement with residents, community groups, business owners and others.

Community policing has succeeded globally in preventing crime, reducing fears of security threats and enhancing public safety. It’s particularly effective at countering radicalization at the local level.

Around the Lake Chad Basin, Boko Haram has appealed to young people disenfranchised by heavy-handed government forces. Al-Shabaab commonly recruits Somali youths by framing counterterror operations as being by run foreign forces, according to the United States Institute of Peace.

“Instead of raising the risk of radicalization through military crackdowns, Police can provide local security services, engage communities as partners, not adversaries, and win public trust,” Dessu wrote. “Police deployed on peace missions can also train local Police to follow the same approach, which would reduce the risk of radicalization and recruitment into terror groups.”

The United Nations has highlighted the work of Olubayo Ajao, chief superintendent of police in Ekpoma, Nigeria. Locals described Ajao as tough on crime and something of a folk hero in the community. He built trust by regularly visiting church services in plain clothes, attending funerals, and speaking at community meetings focused on peace and security.

“We get lots of information from the people, which helps us to nip crime in the bud,” Ajao told the U.N. magazine Africa Renewal. “We have arrested many kidnappers. I am personally involved in such operations. We have recovered guns and handed the criminals over for prosecution.”

Such an approach also can help root out extremists involved in local crime. In the Sahel, terror groups such as Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) are involved in trafficking, kidnapping, illegal mining, and cattle and livestock rustling. Terror groups around the continent also are known to collect taxes from illegal trade.

According to Dessu, there are not enough police officers included in the AU’s peacekeeping missions to respond to other types of crime.

“The absence of Police from most AU missions aimed at countering terrorism has led to weak community engagement and missed opportunities to build local Police capacity, support crime investigations and track criminal syndicates,” he wrote.

ATMIS, the AU’s mission in Somalia, is one of the few peacekeeping missions with a police component, but there are too few officers and they are not sufficiently equipped or trained.

“As a result, areas liberated by the mission’s soldiers and Somalia’s security forces often fall again to al-Shabaab extremists,” Dessu wrote. “This is due to inconsistent engagement with local populations and a failure to provide ongoing security services.”

Dessu is not the only analyst who believes AU peacekeeping missions need more police officers.

A 2023 assessment of the AU’s Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) peacekeeping mission in the Lake Chad Basin urged member states Benin, Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria to build the mission’s police component. Military forces usually are not configured or trained to deal effectively with police matters.

The Norwegian Institute of International Affairs report noted the MNJTF’s military successes in driving Boko Haram from communities it previously controlled and into the islands known as the Tumbuns of Lake Chad.

But in some communities where relative peace has been restored, military troops remain, often performing tasks normally done by police officers, such as protecting farmers and operating checkpoints.

“This situation drains available military resources, limiting the number of troops available to conduct and sustain offensive operations deep into the Tumbuns to defeat the terrorists effectively,” the report said.

The assessment suggested that the AU’s Peace Support Operations Division could help member states develop and operate a police component and transition from deploying troops in areas of conflict to using national police forces.

It urged MNJTF member states to start recruiting, training, resourcing and deploying police components as either a national force deployment or embedded in the MNJTF. The Martin Luther Agwai International Peacekeeping Center in Nigeria and the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre in Ghana could train  potential police officers.

“Moreover, the existing partnership between the AU and the EU [European Union] would provide an opportunity to get support from the EU Training Mission for the training of the Police component of the MNJTF,” the assessment said.

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The recent lifting of the United Nations’ 11-year-old arms embargo on the Central African Republic has been praised as a diplomatic victory but has also raised concerns for its potential to worsen insecurity across the region.

“The Central African security problem cannot be solved simply by importing arms,” the editors of Corbeau News Centrafrique wrote recently.

Corruption, a lack of discipline within the Central African Armed Forces, and the government’s continued dependence on Russian mercenaries remain major obstacles to peace, according to the Corbeau editors.

President Faustin-Archange Touadéra invited Russia’s Africa Corps, then the private military corporation known as the Wagner Group, into the CAR in 2018. The mercenaries were ostensibly hired to train its military to fight rebels with the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC) trying to reinstall former President François Bozizé, who lives in exile in Guinea-Bissau and is subject to an international arrest warrant.

Bozizé was driven from office in 2013. The U.N. imposed its arms embargo that same year. The country has been at war ever since.

“For years, the Touadéra regime has blamed the arms embargo for its inability to restore security,” the Corbeau editors wrote. “Yet lifting the embargo has not put an end to the violence.”

The former Wagner Group has become a major player in the violence in the CAR. Since December 2020, Russian mercenaries have killed more than 900 civilians, making them the deadliest group in the country, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.

Russian mercenaries originally began as unarmed advisers. Over time, however, Russia has exploited a lack of enforcement of the embargo and illegally brought weapons into the country, often under the guise of defending its mining operations there.

Analyst Dami Fakolujo, writing for Spheres of Influence, recently noted that the embargo and other measures aimed at stopping weapon sales failed partly because other countries failed to enforce it.

Loopholes that allowed the national military to purchase weapons meant those same weapons frequently turned up in rebels’ hands. Rebel groups and their supporters routinely smuggled weapons and ammunition into the CAR from the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Sudan.

“Additionally, countries like Russia blatantly disregard these embargoes, leading to an inability to tackle the complex socioeconomic causes of the weapons trade,” Fakolujo wrote.

Despite the embargo, in 2017 the CAR was found to have the second-highest amount of illegal small arms and light weapons among nine African countries studied. Some of those weapons came from Chad and the DRC, according to the Small Arms Survey, which tracks the trafficking on such weapons.

CAR authorities and their supporters at the U.N. argued for many years that the arms embargo put them at a disadvantage against rebel groups. In lifting the arms embargo, the U.N. still banned weapons sales to armed groups through July 2025. It also kept in place targeted sanctions on certain groups and individuals until that time.

The lifting of the U.N. embargo coincides with the ongoing collapse of the CPC. In recent months, the group has fractured and weakened. At least one faction approached the government to begin peace talks in August. Other CPC factions and up to a dozen other rebel groups continue to attack civilians.

Experts say the lifting of the CAR’s arms embargo could lead to more insecurity by increasing the flow of weapons across borders, particularly into Sudan.

Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces controls the Am Dafok border crossing with the CAR and uses that capacity to bring both weapons and fighters from the CAR.

“This bleak picture shows that beyond calls for disarmament and announcements of the lifting of the embargo, the Central African Republic is still far from peace and stability,” the Corbeau editors wrote. “Violence continues to ravage the country, exacerbated by the forces supposed to combat it.”

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United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed was among the many speakers who delivered stark assessments on extremist violence in Africa at a counterterrorism summit earlier this year in Abuja, Nigeria.

“The situation in Africa, particularly in the Sahel, is dire with some of the most violent terrorist groups operating in the Sahel; the region is now accounting for almost half of all deaths from terrorism globally,” she said.

Citing data from the African Centre for the Study and Research on Terrorism in Algeria, African Union Chairperson Mousa Mahamat highlighted some sobering numbers — an average of eight incidents and 44 fatalities per day on the continent in 2023.

There were more than 16,000 deaths in 2023, including more than 7,000 civilians and more than 4,000 security force members.

“Terrorism and violent extremism are the biggest evils of our time, spreading to all the five regions of Africa,” he said.

The threats posed by violent extremist organizations on the continent are constantly evolving, as the two most prominent ones — al-Qaida and the Islamic State group — exploit “a deficit in counterterrorism capabilities,” according to an August 13 report by a panel of U.N. experts.

“The situation is becoming ever more complex with the conflation of ethnic and regional disputes with the agenda and operations of these groups,” they wrote.

A series of infographics published by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS) on August 13 showed how deaths from extremist militant violence have skyrocketed in some regions in recent years, while declining in others.

Sahel: The region with the fewest deaths 10 years ago has had the most over the last three years.

“The 11,200 deaths in the Sahel [through June 30] in 2024 — a tripling since 2021 — now represent over half of all reported fatalities across the continent,” the ACSS stated. “Security force violence against civilians has consistently been found to propel recruitment by violent extremist groups. The Sahelian military juntas and their militia allies have killed more civilians (2,430) in the past year than militant Islamist groups (2,050).”

The U.N. experts pointed to “a deficit in counterterrorism capabilities,” which al-Qaida and the Islamic State group affiliates continue to exploit.

Somalia: Al-Shabaab has existed for three decades and has made this struggling country the second-most-active battlefield on the continent for the last three years.

“The 6,590 reported fatalities in 2024 are more than double that of 2020,” the center wrote.

Al-Shabaab remains an overwhelming presence, as the Islamic State-Somalia group accounted for less than 1% of the terrorist activity in Somalia and Kenya this year. Despite significant losses from air strikes and military operations, “al-Shabab remains resilient.” It has an estimated 7,000 to 12,000 fighters and collects an estimated $100 million a year, mostly from taxation in Mogadishu and southern Somalia, the U.N. experts wrote.

Lake Chad Basin: A decade ago, this region was the epicenter of terrorist violence in Africa with 67% of all deaths, or 13,670 annually, according to the ACSS.

“Militant Islamist violence in the Lake Chad Basin (comprising northeast Nigeria and the borderlands of Cameroon, Niger and Chad) has ebbed and flowed over the past decade,” the report said. “The past two years have seen an increase in violent events after a period of decline. However, annual fatalities linked to these events have remained relatively consistent, typically ranging from 3,500 to 3,800 deaths.”

Mozambique: The northern province of Cabo Delgado has watched in horror as a local insurgency that emerged in 2017 has evolved into the deadly IS-Mozambique group. Multinational military operations have degraded the group’s capabilities, but violent events and fatalities have rebounded in the past year.

“The projected 250 events and 460 fatalities by the end of 2024 would represent a near doubling in violence over the previous year,” the center wrote.

North Africa: From June 30, 2014 to June 30, 2015 there were 3,650 fatalities from terrorism, second highest on the continent. This region now has the fewest reported deaths of the five.

“This year marks the first year there were no violent events linked to militant Islamist groups in Egypt since 2010,” the ACSS wrote. “The United Nations believes ISL (Islamic State-Libya) al-Qaida still have fighters in the southern part of the country, though they appear to be focused on profiting from the illicit economy.”

While Mohammed acknowledged the grim situation on the continent, she called on countries in and around these hotspots to work with the U.N. and other international organizations to address root causes of terrorism. She added that governments on the continent must reestablish their “social contract” or connection with communities and people.

“Terrorists find a welcome home with deeply disillusioned, excluded and desperate people,” she said. “When we create an environment where our youth can thrive, we can deter the disillusionment that leads some to believe joining terrorist groups like ISWAP [Islamic State-West Africa Province] or Boko Haram offers better opportunities than contributing to the development of their communities and continent.”

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Soldiers from The Gambia and the U.S. joined for a one-week event in August to share knowledge and best practices related to military professionalism and accountability.

Members of the Gambia Armed Forces (GAF) and the U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF) attended the meeting in Banjul. It focused on topics including the inspector general (IG) system, the rule of law and improving military cooperation between the two nations.

“The opportunity to engage in dialogue with our Gambian counterparts was invaluable,” said Lt. Col. Benjamin Barrett, chief of engagements and exercises, SETAF-AF Inspector General office. “By exchanging insights on the IG system and rule of law, we can enhance our mutual understanding and strengthen the foundation of integrity and justice in both of our militaries.”

Used in the U.S. and many other countries, the IG sits within the military chain of command and reports to the service branch chief or another leader. Sometimes called the “eyes, ears, voice and conscience” of the commander, the IG serves as an internal oversight mechanism flagging problems or deficiencies in the military. When working effectively, the IG alerts commanders to issues so they can be addressed proactively.

The Gambia is working to improve military accountability and restore the image of its armed forces. In 2017, newly elected Gambian President Adama Barrow launched a security sector reform process aimed at improving the performance of the military and ending abuses stemming from 22 years of dictatorial rule. Reforms have included strengthening security sector oversight mechanisms and forming a Truth, Reconciliation and Reparation Commission to document past abuses.

Brig. Gen. Sait Njie, commander of the Gambia National Army, said much work is left to be done.

“As we have emerged from a political system in which some personnel of the Armed Forces soiled the good relationship we used to have with the civilian population, it is the desire of my command to engage in activities that seek to promote a culture of understanding and cooperation with all civil actors within our area of responsibility,” Njie said in March at a promotion ceremony for 312 Soldiers. “It is largely through this way that we can regain the confidence and respect of the Gambian people.”

The U.S.-Gambia meeting included case studies of challenging issues regarding the rule of law and military professionalism. It also led to candid conversations between Soldiers from the two nations.

“One of the key takeaways from this exchange is the shared commitment to accountability and integrity within our respective militaries,” Lt. Col. Reneka Redmond of the SETAF-AF Staff Judge Advocate office said. “It’s inspiring to see how our two countries, despite different histories and systems, are aligned in our dedication to upholding these values and the rule of law.”

In recent years, coups have multiplied in West Africa, and The Gambia put down an attempted coup in 2022. The country hopes it can strengthen civil-military relations and avoid falling into the coup trap by doubling down on its core values, including an apolitical posture and strict military subordination to civilian rule.

“Since the change of government, GAF has made significant strides to remove the military from politics and also remove politics from the military,” Njie said. “These gains must be strengthened because politics is beyond the scope of our competence and therefore involvement in it will only result in the erosion in military professionalism and loss of confidence and respect.”

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The Miombo Woodlands covers parts of eight African countries, stretching from Burundi to Angola to southern Mozambique. Yet most of the logging that goes on in the woodlands benefits a single country: China.

Unlike the rainforest to the north, the Miombo is described as a dry tropical woodland. Miombo covers 10% of Africa’s landmass and supports the lives of more than 150 million people. It is home to a variety of tree species, many of which carry red-hued wood that is popular among Chinese furniture makers and high-end shoppers. While some of the trees are species known as rosewood, others, such as tigerwood, are also popular with Chinese loggers.

The desire for Miombo forest products drives a network of illegal logging and corruption that ultimately ends with millions of dollars’ worth of logs arriving on Chinese shores each year. According to a BBC report, more than $18 million in Miombo logs found their way to China from Mozambique between October 2023 and March 2024. The logs traveled in more than 300 shipping containers from the port at Beira.

Shipments of illegally harvested trees from African countries continue despite China’s ban on importing logs from endangered species such as rosewood. Bribes smooth the way for such shipments. The money that illegal logging generates can fund terrorist activities, according to the BBC.

Logging and shipments also continue in violation of the Maputo Declaration, also known as the Miombo Initiative, which aims to halt illegal logging and address the threats to the ecosystem.

Nine countries signed the agreement: Angola, Botswana, the Democratic Republic of the Congo,  Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. South Africa is outside the bounds of the Miombo but was included because of its experience in managing forests.

The Chinese logging companies operating in the Miombo Woodlands are private companies rather than state-owned enterprises, according to observers. One of the biggest among them is Fodeco, a company without industrial logging experience that received a massive logging concession in the DRC in 2015. At the time, Fodeco held one of 18 such permits granted in violation of the DRC’s 22-year-old ban on new logging permits.

The Miombo Initiative was signed in the capital of Mozambique, which has become an example of how Chinese companies exploit the Miombo Woodlands.

Mozambique loses an amount of Miombo forest equal to 1,000 football fields each year. According to the Environmental Investigation Agency, more than 89% of timber exports are illegal. Much of that is rare, endangered rosewood trees.

Between 2017 and 2023, Mozambique exported about 3.7 million metric tons of timber to China. Much of it was rosewood and some of it came from areas of the country controlled by terrorists, funding their operations.

The nations that share the Miombo Woodlands generally lack the management plans and laws needed to ensure that logging remains within a range that the forest can survive, according to researchers with the Malawi-based Miombo Network.

In Mozambique, the biggest timber exporter in Southern Africa, those companies move their illegally harvested logs from the field to the furniture factory for as little as $500 in bribes paid to government officials, according to researchers with Global Voices.

“These government officials facilitate communication and secure passage at checkpoints, representing another form of collusion to violate logging bans,” the researchers wrote recently.

Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi told a conference dedicated to preserving the Miombo that the nations within the woodland boundaries must cooperate to protect it.

“To go far, we must work together,” Nyusi said.

For now, China’s exploitation of the Miombo Woodlands is outpacing the forest’s ability to regenerate.

“Even though a few examples of sustainable harvesting exist, logging in the Miombo woodland is unsustainable,” Miombo Network researchers wrote in a 2018 study. “Consequently, most of the timber species are becoming extinct economically.”

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Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for an August 21 suicide bomb attack that killed 10 people, including seven security officers and two civilians, at a security checkpoint in Mogadishu.

In another August attack, al-Shabaab used a car bomb to blow up a Mogadishu café, killing five people and injuring several others who were watching the Euro 2024 soccer finals.

Such attacks, as well as the ongoing threat from an estimated 1 million mines and other unexploded ordnance left over from past conflicts, has civilians living in constant fear. Between March and April, Somali civilians accounted for 56% of all casualties involving improvised explosive devices in the country, according to the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS).

Somali Police Officer Mohamed Ahmed is an Explosive Ordnance Unit member tasked with risking his life to save others from the deadly remnants of war. On a recent weekday, Ahmed wore a bulky protective suit and helmet as he moved cautiously toward an area where explosives wired to a mobile phone were planted. He was participating in a training exercise, but acknowledged that overcoming everyday fear is part of his job.

“We fear and feel like we are risking our lives,” Ahmed told Reuters. “But we work carefully together and consider that we’re saving the lives of our citizens.”

Hussain Ahmed is the unit’s dog trainer. Known as Explosive Detection Dogs, these canines are trained to sniff out the explosives at government facilities, airports and security checkpoints. He said he often faces stigma over his work because some consider dogs to be unclean.

“If they say we shall not shake hands or greet you, we are indifferent, without a grudge,” he told Reuters. “Yes, there is impurity from dogs, but dogs prevent explosions that would kill thousands of Somalis, so they have their benefits.”

According to UNMAS, more than 1,700 people across Somalia have been killed by mines and unexploded ordinance. Eradicating the threat is as complicated as it is dangerous.

When fighting stops and civilians return, there are no detailed records of where minefields may be, former UNMAS head Elena Rice-Howell said in a U.N. video.

“It takes somebody to start a systematic process, going across the country and talking to communities, talking to people who live there and asking if they know of minefields, if they know of any bombs left behind, if there have been any accidents, has anyone been hurt?” Rice-Howell said.

UNMAS has led ongoing efforts to address the threat since 2009. Recently, UNMAS helped train more than 1,200 Somali troops and facilitated the movement of more than 50 African Union Training Mission in Somalia convoys in March and April. It also identified and cleared 18 locations contaminated by unexploded ordnance, and educated more than 6,000 people, 66% of whom were children, about the risks posed by unexploded ordnance, according to the U.N.

One young Somali boy told UNMAS representatives about an event that altered his life several years ago. He sat with a crutch balanced between his left leg and the arm of a plastic chair. His body clenched and his face tightened as he spoke.

“They were standing there with something. Then, my friends said to me, ‘We have found a landmine,’” the boy told UNMAS.

He paused, clutched the arm of a woman sitting nearby and gathered himself.

“My friends were playing with the landmine when it exploded,” he said. “All the other children died, and I lost my leg.”

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Tunisia is on track to buy an undisclosed number of 20-meter Archangel patrol boats from the United States at an estimated cost of $110 million. The purchase will include GPS, navigation and communications systems, and training.

“The proposed sale will better equip Tunisia to contribute to shared security objectives, promote regional stability, and build interoperability with the United States and Western partners,” the U.S. State Department announced, adding that the Tunisian Navy uses such boats for “search and rescue, maritime law enforcement, and other maritime-related operations to ensure security in the country and region.”

Tunisia already has similar Archangel boats, bought in 2015. The U.S.-based SAFE Boats International boats are equipped with dual 1,600-horsepower diesel engines, shock-absorbing seating and climate control. Their range is up to 400 nautical miles.

Because of its experience with its Archangel boats, the Tunisian Navy will easily integrate the new boats once they are approved, reports Overt Defense. The boats are intended for use in brown water operations, such as near shore and in inland waterways. Analysts told Breaking Defense that such boats are particularly useful for anti-smuggling and light security patrols. The country has 1,148 kilometers of coastline.

Tunisia faces a host of security problems. Its porous borders allows human trafficking from the south, along with trafficking from neighboring countries Algeria and Libya. The country also faces threats from drug trafficking, weapons smuggling and illegal fishing.

Libya, which has been without a unified national government since a 2011 civil war, has huge stockpiles of weapons scattered throughout the country. It sells them illegally all over the continent and beyond, according to the Peace Research Institute Oslo. Libya’s destabilization has dramatically increased the need for improved maritime security because of the increased risk from smuggled goods, weapons and militants to and from the country.

The Tunisian Center for Research and Studies on Terrorism has reported that a large percentage of terrorists who have operated in Tunisia were trained in Libya, where the Islamic State group and other organizations have established training camps for fighters since the government collapsed. Explosives used in attacks also have been traced to Libya, the anti-conflict group Saferworld has reported.

DRAMATIC CHANGE

Tunisia’s status as a regional maritime force began to change dramatically in 2009, when it received $14.5 million in military financing from the U.S. for 10 small 8-meter response boats and five medium 13-meter response boats, along with spare parts, training and support. Response boats typically are used in counternarcotics operations, search and rescue, trafficking interdiction, and environmental response.

This addition of vessels into the Tunisian fleet amounted to a wholesale recapitalization of its territorial water patrol capability. Officials say the new vessels will replace the Tunisian Navy’s aging boats under 20 meters, which were delivered in 2011, have been mostly used for patrolling, search and rescue, and interdiction.

Tunisia’s naval fleet took another step forward in 2015 with the commissioning of its first domestically produced frigate. The 27.5-meter ship was the product of a public-private effort that used the local industrial base. The Tunisian Navy managed the procurement and carried out the effort, from funding to design and construction, domestically. Seven such ships were planned at the time. At least five have been completed.

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Whether serving in a complex multinational peacekeeping mission or rebuilding a military legal framework from the vestiges of outdated colonial and Cold War doctrines, military legal officers can benefit from their peers’ experiences.

That exchange of knowledge was the goal of the seventh iteration of the African Military Law Forum (AMLF), which convened August 27 through 29 in Lusaka, Zambia. The forum brought together about 50 participants from 30 African countries. The Zambia Defence Force co-hosted the event along with U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM), U.S. Army Europe and Africa, and the North Carolina National Guard.

Zambia Army legal advisor Col. Mwizukanji Namwawa, director-general of Army Legal Services, was elected to serve as president of the AMLF for the next two years. She credited her country’s strong relations with neighboring countries and the U.S. for Zambia being chosen to host the event. “We have really, really good relationships with our partners, so we’re very happy to have been part of this,” she told ADF.

The AMLF serves as a sort of “bar association” gathering for African military advisors. In it, military legal officers from across the continent share best practices with their peers. They also learn from each other and build relationships.

The 2024 theme was “The Role of the Legal Advisor During Deployments.” African military legal professionals spent the conference discussing issues such as resolving legal issues while deployed, counseling commanders effectively, best practices for investigations, command accountability during deployments, training and mentoring, and women, peace and security issues.

Col. Marguerite Meffand-Loaw of the Cameroon Armed Forces knows first-hand the importance of having military legal advisors on deployments. She served in the long-running United Nations peacekeeping mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, known as MONUSCO.

Meffand-Loaw advised Congolese prosecutors who brought cases against militia members. “The court that was in charge of prosecuting those militias was the military operational court,” she told ADF through an interpreter. “And for me it was not good because there were a lot of international laws … that were not being properly applied. And it was against the rights of the defendant.”

The court, which did not offer opportunities to appeal, soon was dismantled, she said.

In Somalia, authorities want to expand the military advisor program so that it’s not just one office at the top. They also hope to throw off elements of Italian and British colonial practices and old Soviet influences. “Now we have a transition plan to get other frameworks, which are now trying to focus on the legal issues and the legal doctrines and also military doctrine,” Col. Ahmed Jinow Hassan, Somalia’s legal advisor for military justice, told ADF.

Hassan said Somalia is trying to recruit new military lawyers and justice officers so that legal advisors can be installed at the battalion and brigade levels. Having such advisors at lower levels will help Soldiers with one of the most common issues on any battlefield: avoiding civilian harm, one of Somalia’s biggest challenges.

Somalia is preparing to assume full control of its security as an African Union transition mission there winds down at the end of the year. He believes having a strong legal system is vital to this security transition. “Without legal issues, all the transition and all the planning will not be helpful to Somalia,” Hassan said.

Capt. Letsiwe Portia Rodah Magongo, judge advocate and legal advisor in Eswatini’s Ministry of National Defence and Security, told ADF that the AMLF’s strength is in how it brings together legal advisors from across the continent to share experiences. “Out of this meeting, I discovered that we all share similar challenges, so what we have to do is to build up our partnerships and work together and see how we can bridge those gaps as a continent.”

Legal advisors often are left out of mission planning and only are called in after a problem has occurred. “Whereas when we are involved in the planning stage, that can be avoided,” she said.

Working together, sharing knowledge among nations and effectively advising commanders on legal issues is necessary to bring stability and peace to a continent facing various conflicts, Magongo said. “I think it’s time whereby as a continent we need peace, we need to work together. We can’t work in isolation.”

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Benin recorded its first incident of extremist violence in 2019, and the number of recorded attacks by Sahelian terror organizations on Beninese soil has risen every year since.

There were 20 attacks — mostly by the al-Qaida-affiliated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), but also by the Islamic State group (IS) — in 2022 and 40 in 2023, according to The Defense Post.

The Beninese Army said last year that the country experienced the sharpest rise in extremist militant attacks in Africa as terror groups from neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger increasingly targeted northern Benin, particularly in the W-Arly-Pendjari (WAP) complex of parks.

Between July 2023 and July 2024, the number of deaths in Benin due to extremist violence doubled to 173 over the previous one-year time frame, according to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS).

Throughout the extensive 34,000-square-kilometer (13,100-square-mile) WAP complex, park rangers trained to combat poaching now are on the front lines of the country’s war on terror.

“The jihadists are able to navigate through the park [complex] quite easily, particularly on the Burkina and Niger side,” Ibrahim Yahaya Ibrahim, deputy director of the International Crisis Group’s Sahel Project, told Mongabay. “The Benin authorities are trying to control their portion of the park, which exposes them to attacks.”

That happened July 28, when terrorists in W National Park killed at least seven Beninese security forces and five rangers working with a nonprofit organization.

The spread of extremist violence is exacerbated by the growing number of JNIM kidnappings in northern Benin, where 75 kidnapping or attempted kidnapping incidents were reported last year, more than triple the number recorded in 2022, according to The Defense Post. There were fewer than 25 reported kidnapping incidents in Benin between 2016 and 2021.

JNIM and the IS are known to kidnap people to spread fear and generate income through ransom payments.

“Perhaps most importantly, kidnappings help gradually erode the belief that the state is the primary security provider,” analyst Charlie Werb wrote in The Defense Post.

In response to the security threats, Beninese authorities have mobilized 3,000 Soldiers to northern Benin through Operation Mirador. Another 4,000 Soldiers are deployed there on a rotating and seasonal basis. The Beninese military also has recruited about 1,000 local forces to enhance intelligence capabilities in the north.

However, as the ACSS reported, the sudden presence of military forces has fueled tensions between farmer and pastoralist communities and inadvertently deepened grievances that locals have against the government.

Werb argued that the Beninese government can better address the socioeconomic pressures faced by farmers and pastoralists in the park complex by reopening areas that were closed due to insecurity; this could help decrease conflict. A strategy aimed at providing sustainable economic opportunities in the region also should be considered, he wrote.

Werb also called for increased military cooperation with Burkina Faso and Niger. In 2022, Benin signed a military cooperation agreement with Niger that aimed to strengthen cross-border security, but Niger’s ruling military junta broke the agreement after it took power in July 2023. Niger has kept its side of the border closed for about a year.

Since 2021, Benin also has faced increasing security threats from Nigerian bandits from Katsina and Zamfara states. Bandit warlords in northwest Nigeria are known to clash and collaborate with violent extremists.

Residents in Beninese border communities say Nigerian bandits have built houses in Kalale, Kandi, Malanville and Sokotindji, all communities with a history of cross-border trade and pastoralism.

“Surprisingly, bandit activity deeper within Benin is reemerging in areas where JNIM is now operating,” including in the Cobli, Kandi, Karimama, Malanville, Materi and Touncountoun communes, researcher Kars de Bruiijne, head of the Sahel program at the Clingendael Institute, wrote for African Arguments. “Information from Benin suggests several of these bandit incidents involve Nigerians.”

Because political conditions in the Sahel are less conducive to  counterterrorism cooperation, Benin and Nigeria should consider ways to strengthen bilateral cross-border cooperation to counter security threats, de Bruiijne wrote.

He added that the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) might have an opportunity to support counterterrorism efforts along border zones.

“If not, in another five years, the picture along the Benin-Niger-Nigeria border zones may look even more concerning than it does today,” de Bruiijne wrote.

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