Monrovia — The heads of African air forces have called for the "strengthening military aviation across borders" during their annual symposium which is being in the Zambian capital of Lusaka. This year's gathering takes place against the backdrop of escalating conflicts in the region, including DR Congo and Sudan, which killed thousands of people and displaced millions.
However, U.S. General James Hecker, commander of U.S. Air Forces Europe - U.S Air Forces Africa (USAFE-AFAFRICA), said during an online briefing on Wednesday, February 19, that the symposium was focused on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief, not military action. "We are not getting into the political realm during this conversation," Hecker told journalists.
Hecker said the African air chiefs' association has grown in numbers since its formation in 2015 from four to 29 nations, thus creating the need to "operationalize everything we are doing". This was a reference to the military drills of the participating countries in the host nation Zambia, and responding to floods.
"... It was a very fruitful table-top exercise because instead of just having one country – in this case, Zambia – dealing with the flood, we had 29 different nations offering different aircraft, offering assistance," he said, emphasizing that although the annual gathering is being held in partnership with USAFE-AFAFRICA with member states of the expanding Association of African Air Forces (AAAF), it is an "African-led affair" to which the U.S. provided support.
At Wednesday's briefing, the Commander of the Air Forces of Zambia, Lieutenant General Oscar Nyoni, said he was hoping that in the next few months, plans from the symposium can be fully "actualized", enabling the air forces "to practice and see how the standard operation procedures that have been put in place, which every member-state understands, are in action".
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Nyoni said the gathering focused on humanitarian and disaster relief operations because these are some of the "worst enemies" of countries in the region. "By alleviating the suffering of the people, we will be promoting human dignity and as well as unity in the continent."
Air forces on the continent face significant challenges with infrastructure and equipment which hamper mobility and their response to regional humanitarian crises and disasters. Zambia, for instance, is grappling with multiple disasters, including El Nino causing the worst drought the country has experienced in 40 years, and destroyed maize crops, and limited access to clean water.
In response to a question about how the U.S. intends to use the symposium to leverage its fight against terrorism on the continent - particularly air strikes against Islamic State (IS) in Somalia - Hecker said those actions will continue because they are "high-value targets that threatened African nations and threatened the United States".
He also said the U.S. is providing training opportunities for the Nigerian military, to help in their fight against terrorist groups such as Boko Haram.
In the same week, the U.S. Ambassador to Nigeria denied media reports that USAID funding were diverted to the the terrorist group.
"Let me be clear, there's no friend of Nigeria that has been stronger in its condemnation of the violence of Boko Haram and Boko Haram's contempt for human life than the U.S," Ambassador Richard Mills, said.
Mills said the U.S. designated Boko Haram as a foreign terrorist organization in 2013, blocking the group from transferring assets to the US and allowing us to arrest and seize its members.
