AFRICOM has deployed Military Information Support Teams in several African countries and has conducted additional information operations in other nations on the African continent.
An AFRICOM official, responding to an inquiry by this blog (and AFRICOMWatch.Blogspot.com) , was providing the first-ever public details of OPERATION OBJECTIVE VOICE (OOV), known previously as OPERATION ASSURED VOICE - AFRICA (OAV-A).
The operation has been described by AFRICOM as "an operation that strikes at the heart of violent extremist ideology... where multiple agencies partner with African governments to broadcast messages to counter extremist propaganda." The operation also involves the deployment of Military Information Support Teams, known as MISTs.
According to the AFRICOM official, the aim of these information activities is "to influence the information environment in a way that reduces the effect and influence of Violent Extremist Organizations and their ideology."
The official says U.S. Africa Command, through OOV, has conducted survey research in Nigeria and Mali, which supports the U.S. government program called the Trans-Sahara Counter Terrorism Partnership (TSCTP) and its military component, Operation ENDURING FREEDOM Trans-Sahara (OEF-TS). The official says AFRICOM has not done such research in Kenya, which is not part of OEF-TS.
The official says Africa Command has Military Information Support Teams (MIST) deployed in Nigeria, Mali and Kenya. He says those teams have undertaken several programs. He says these include Ethnic and Religious Tolerance programs, Anti-Smuggling/Anti-Trafficking programs, Conflict Resolution training or broad-based radio programming. In Kenya, for example, the official says the MIST team has conducted Peace and Reconciliation programs. These efforts are closely coordinated with U.S. Embassy programs.
The official discloses AFRICOM has also conducted OOV-sponsored surveys in Chad, Niger, Senegal, and Algeria. "We have sponsored an Embassy program in Niger. We are working on OOV programming initiatives in Senegal and Burkina Faso. We also have MISTs deployed to Mauritania, Niger, and Ethiopia," the official reveals.
Although not specifically conceived as part of OOV, the official confirms AFRICOM sponsors a news and information website, www.magharebia.com. He says AFRICOM also has Civil Affairs teams conducting small-scale Humanitarian Assistance projects in several countries; and "while these are not funded or overseen by OOV, they also contribute to the achievement of the command's OOV Effects," the official says.
The AFRICOM official says the MISTs deployed in Africa did not deploy with radio, television or other equipment of their own. He says they will use capabilities already in existence in the countries where they work.
He says, "Typically (though not always), they will employ TV, radio, newspapers, billboards and posters, and what we call 'Durable Messaging Goods' (the things you give to people, such as shirts, hats, soccer balls, etc.). TV may include buying ad time or sponsoring documentaries; radio may include buying ad time, sponsoring live discussions or call-in shows, or producing radio dramas/series."
Asked by AFRICOMWatch if the U.S. military was considering the deployment of Commando Solo airborne broadcasting platforms, the official says it is an option. "While we may seek to deploy it, it would likely be a temporary measure in support of a specific operation, such as Counter Piracy operations. It would likely NOT be deployed in support of OOV; because OOV is a long-term effort in several countries, and the temporary employment of an airborne broadcast platform is not well-suited to long-term OOV needs."
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Brazzaville
Giving a voice to the voiceless -- a reporter remembers
Regrets Only: An Africa Journal
Subscribe
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
Brazzaville
Why?
It is October, 1997. I am standing in a rubble-strewn Brazzaville street as the city returns cautiously to life after a bloody civil war. Armed men are all around me, most of them looting, occasionally firing off bursts of bullets in celebration. But I am not concentrating on this anymore. Instead, with the hand holding my microphone limp by my side, my tape running senselessly. I am looking at another corpse -- this one of a man, perhaps in his 20's, his legs charred. I know there will be no voice to record. But his lips are apart, his arms outstretched, fingers together, as if in prayer. It seems another one of Africa's dead is trying to speak to me. And I feel I owe him this one last consideration. I think maybe he wants to share his anguish, his despair, his pain. Or maybe a last word to a parent or a wife or a child. I feel badly -- because I do not know for sure. I do know though that I have seen corpses like this before -- victims of war, or of genocide, or of famine, or of sickness. A symbolic path of the dead now runs through my mind -- a personal collection reflecting the real path their corpses have left across much of Africa: from arid Somalia in the northeast, across Sudan and into northern Uganda, down through steamy Rwanda, Burundi and Congo in the center of the continent. Some have been young men in uniform, their bodies shattered by a bullet or a shell. Some have been old men, thin beyond belief, weakened by hunger or disease. Some have been women, their dresses in tatters, their faces etched with silent agony. Some have been children, too young to die, their skulls cleaved in half. Some I have met in battle-scarred streets, some in burned-out buildings. Some I have seen sprawled amidst flowers in an open field, some floating, limbs bound, in muddy water. Some I have found in groups thrown into a dirt pit, some alone in the aisles of a gutted church. I have, at times, had imaginary conversations with these dead of mine -- their unrecorded voices playing on endlessly inside my head, sometimes loud, sometimes just a whisper. I tell them I am sorry and if it were in my power, I would restore them to life. But I can't. It's not in my power. Perhaps the only help I can give is to try to tell their story.
The Reporter
Alex Belida has been in international broadcasting since 1971. He spent nearly eight years in sub-Saharan Africa as a correspondent for the Voice of America, based first in Nairobi (1993-1996) and then in Johannesburg (1996-2000). He covered conflicts and humanitarian crises in Rwanda, Somalia, Sudan, Burundi, Congo-Kinshasa and Congo-Brazzaville, northern Uganda, Angola and Lesotho as well as political unrest in Zimbabwe and catastrophic flooding in Mozambique. He suffered gunshot wounds while reporting in Somalia.
While in Africa, he was elected Chairman of the East Africa Foreign Correspondents Association in Nairobi and served as Treasurer of the Foreign Correspondents Association of Southern Africa during his Johannesburg assignment.
Before going to Africa, he served as VOA's Senior White House reporter for four years following stints as coordinator of the 1988 Presidential Election coverage and as National News Editor. Before those Washington assignments, he was based in Germany, where he served as Soviet affairs, East-West security and German affairs correspondent (1982-1985).
Following Africa, he served as Pentagon correspondent. In 2004 he was named Managing Editor and in 2007 became Senior Advisor for News at VOA. He retired in 2011.
Before joining VOA, he worked for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in both New York and Munich, rising from reporter to Assistant News Director. He has a BA from Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., and a MS in Journalism from Columbia University in New York. In 2006, he received the prestigious Alumni Achievement Award from Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism. He also has an honorary doctorate in communications from the Somali National University.
The views expressed here are his own.
While in Africa, he was elected Chairman of the East Africa Foreign Correspondents Association in Nairobi and served as Treasurer of the Foreign Correspondents Association of Southern Africa during his Johannesburg assignment.
Before going to Africa, he served as VOA's Senior White House reporter for four years following stints as coordinator of the 1988 Presidential Election coverage and as National News Editor. Before those Washington assignments, he was based in Germany, where he served as Soviet affairs, East-West security and German affairs correspondent (1982-1985).
Following Africa, he served as Pentagon correspondent. In 2004 he was named Managing Editor and in 2007 became Senior Advisor for News at VOA. He retired in 2011.
Before joining VOA, he worked for Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in both New York and Munich, rising from reporter to Assistant News Director. He has a BA from Trinity College, Hartford, Conn., and a MS in Journalism from Columbia University in New York. In 2006, he received the prestigious Alumni Achievement Award from Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism. He also has an honorary doctorate in communications from the Somali National University.
The views expressed here are his own.
No comments:
Post a Comment