Event Brings Awareness to Critical Role of Women During Conflict

U.S. Embassy Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso hosted a Women, Peace and Security Reception during Flintlock 2019.

By Nathan Herring , U.S. Africa Command Burkina Faso Feb 20, 2019

View Gallery

Gallery contains 9 images

U.S. Embassy Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso hosted a Women, Peace and Security Reception during Flintlock 2019, U.S. Africa Command’s premier and largest special operations and law enforcement exercise in Africa.

The event brought together exercise attendees and members of the local community to discuss the role women play in solving some of Africa’s most complex challenges including the threat posed by violent extremist groups.

“Women’s voices are not being heard in the fight against terrorism,” said Dr. Justine Coulidiati-Kielem, regional coordinator of the Women of the G5 Sahel Platform. “I am convinced that without women, we will never achieve peace.”

A woman contributes to social cohesion in African societies by uniting families, sometimes of different ethnic groups and she plays a crucial role in the education of young people, Coulidiati-Kielem said.

“In households, they are the first to be able to detect at-risk attitudes among their husbands or children,” she said. They can thus prevent their loved ones from falling into indoctrination [by terrorist groups] and armed struggle.”

Flintlock is an annual African-led, integrated military and law enforcement exercise that has strengthened key partner nation forces throughout North and West Africa as well as western special operations forces since 2005.More than 2,000 service members from more than 30 African and western partner nations, are participating in this year’s exercise.

“As this special operations exercise is taking place, it raises the importance of women in both diffusing this conflict as well as creating the environment in which an enduring peace can survive,” Berg said.

This year, Women, Peace, and Security themes are woven throughout the exercise including a senior leader seminar and within the exercise scenario itself, she said.

“Women’s participation in security is not peripheral; it is a key part of ensuring lasting, meaningful security in conjunction with defense, development and diplomacy efforts,” Berg said. “If we are to succeed, and we must, every one of us must see the inclusion of women as essential weapons to address long-term security.”

A different perspective: Women of Cutlass Express

Ghanaian officer earns her infantry blue cord

Obangame Express 2021: women in arms lead the way

Liaison officer bridges Kenya, U.S. cooperation

Nigerien Air Force's first female pilot adds C-130 to repertoire

Women, Peace, Security

Army lawyers provide training on rules for armed conflict at exercise Justified Accord

NAIROBI, Kenya – Among the flurry of tactical live fires and squad movement drills, air ground integration and even the humanitarian initiatives at exercise Justified Accord 2025 (JA25), lies the one thing those who serve in any armed force must follow: The Law. The Law of Armed Conflict, or LOAC, is a key aspect of training for any military. JA25’s academics course aimed at learning from the international legal lessons of previous wars in an effort to reduce the amount of human suffering in future conflicts. “The soldier’s rules are a broad set of rules that we have pulled from the large breadth of international law,” said U.S. Army Maj. Tim Olliges, an operational law attorney assigned to U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF), the lead U.S. Army command and planner of JA25. “The LOAC is extensive and can be complex, so we pull out the ten most critical concepts that every soldier, right down to the private, should know before they go into combat.”

US, Kenya prepare for the unimaginable CBRN threat

NAIROBI, Kenya – Imagine two scenarios. Scenario 1: Dawn breaks over the capital of Kenya. A U.S. diplomat leaves his residence for the embassy. After a 20-minute ride, his car arrives at the gate and he enters. He sits in his office to begin the day when, all of a sudden, he hears an explosion through the open window. It seems far off; it is not a large explosion. He thinks maybe it was just a car accident, but minutes later he smells something bitter in the air. His eyes water, sirens blare and a U.S. Marine Corps security detail enters his office wearing gas masks. They put a mask on him and tell him they must evacuate immediately because a deadly chemical is blowing over the compound. Scenario 2: U.S. intelligence receives credible information that radiological material is being loaded onto a ship in the Kenyan port city of Mombasa. Time is short and no one knows which ship, only that it will embark soon, possibly bound for the hands of violent extremists or other state actors looking to imperil the U.S. homeland. There is no time to send U.S. security forces to intercept the package. Instead, the Kenyan Disaster Response Battalion (DRB) mobilizes and arrives at the port. Using tactics and tools gained from years of training with the United States, they find the ship and the weapon, placed there by a violent extremist organization, and prevent its departure, defeating the threat to America and its citizens. Similar scenarios have happened before in other areas of the world.

36th Annual International Military Chiefs of Chaplains Conference and First Chaplain Africa Forum held in Brussels

The U.S. European Command (EUCOM) and Belgian Ministry of Defence, in partnership with U.S. Africa Command (AFRICOM) and U.S. Indo Pacific Command (INDOPACOM) Chaplain Directorates, hosted the world’s largest annual meeting of senior military religious leaders at the 36th Annual NATO & Partner International Military Chiefs of Chaplains Conference (IMCCC) in Brussels, Belgium, January 27-31, 2025.

Army lawyers provide training on rules for armed conflict at exercise Justified Accord

US, Kenya prepare for the unimaginable CBRN threat

36th Annual International Military Chiefs of Chaplains Conference and First Chaplain Africa Forum held in Brussels

Army lawyers provide training on rules for armed conflict at exercise Justified Accord

US, Kenya prepare for the unimaginable CBRN threat

36th Annual International Military Chiefs of Chaplains Conference and First Chaplain Africa Forum held in Brussels

United States Africa Command

Event Brings Awareness to Critical Role of Women During Conflict

U.S. Embassy Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso hosted a Women, Peace and Security Reception during Flintlock 2019.