A photo of me as a (recently turned) 20-year old 2nd Lieutenant Infantryman in 1982, filling my water bottles with 'quality' water (by bush standards) at a waterhole at Umundaungilo village, Ovamboland approximately 2km from the Angolan border. These events are still...
French shipyard Constructions Mécaniques de Normandie (CMN) has completed the hull of the first BR71 Mk II corvette for the Angolan Navy, with the other two vessels to be built in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) under a technology transfer agreement. Steel was cut for...
Somali troops and US forces this week killed a senior commander of the Al-Shabaab militant group with a $10 million American bounty on his head, the African nation’s information minister said. The Al-Qaeda-linked Islamists have led a 16-year insurgency against the...
The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) is set to elevate its capabilities with the recent delivery of the first batch of two TAI T-129 ATAK attack helicopters from Turkey. This significant development marks a substantial enhancement in Nigeria’s defence capabilities and is part...
Several peacekeepers from the UN mission in Mali, currently in the process of withdrawing from the country, were “seriously injured” on Wednesday when their convoy fell victim to an improvised explosive device, a UN spokesman said. On Tuesday, peacekeepers from the...
UN soldiers Tuesday evacuated a camp in the strategic town of Kidal in Mali’s volatile north, which has been wracked by jihadist and separatist violence, several sources in the peacekeeping mission told AFP. “We left Kidal this morning,” a source in the UN...
This support contract is particularly essential as the South African Air Force has had to manage its tight budget carefully. South Africa has recently signed a contract with GKN Aerospace, a global engineering company, for the maintenance of the engines of its Gripen...
In the context of the former Portuguese colonial empire, the territories of Guinea and Cape Verde played an important role in the maritime and air routes connecting Southern Africa, where Portugal had two important colonies: Angola and Mozambique. Furthermore, on the...
Clashes have intensified in DR Congo’s east where the national army has deployed in areas it was chased out of at the start of the year, the United Nations and local sources said Monday. After a six-month lull, fighting resumed this month between local armed groups...
The Malian army said on Sunday that new fighting had broken out in the north between the military and armed rebel groups, the latest in a series of attacks on the army in the troubled West African country. The army reported on social media “intense fighting” against...
This is the short story of Fiat G.91R fighter bombers operated by the Força Aérea Portuguesa (FAP, Portuguese Air Force) in Angola [partially covered in War of Intervention in Angola Volume 1 published by Helion & Company]. None of the Fiat G.91R fighter bombers...
How rapidly times alter. As the so-called ‘Winds of Change’ swept through colonial Africa, the process of decolonisation gathered inexorable pace. Rhodesia was a prominent example. In July 1964, it experienced its first terrorist incident when a white farmer was...
South African Denel Rooivalk attack helicopters will be modernized with Aselsan’s avionics under a deal signed during the recently-concluded IDEF-2023 exhibition. Aselsan and Denel Aeronautics signed a memorandum of understanding for the Rooivalk modernization during...
At least nine people have been killed in an attack on a village in DR Congo that is controlled by military forces sent in by the East African Community (EAC) to curb violence in the country’s east, local sources said Sunday. The Marangara village in North Kivu...
The Angolan Navy has taken delivery of the first of two new tank landing craft built by France’s CMN, five months after launch in Cherbourg. CMN (Constructions Mecaniques de Normandie) launched the vessel RA 4 de Abril (ND15) at the end of February, after construction...
An ECOWAS deadline for the junta in Niger to relinquish power and restore ousted President Mohamed Bazoum expired yesterday. Now, West Africa waits. The threat of war still looms and neither side has indicated it will back down. Over the weekend, Niger and ECOWAS both...