Senegal’s military chief makes history

As he visits AFRICOM command
By Frederic Tendeng
Lieutenant General Abdoulaye Fall, chief of defence staff of the Senegalese Armed Forces, made history on Thursday, when he became the first African defence chief to visit the US Africa Command headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany.
Gen. Fall attended an office call with General William E. Ward, commander, US Africa Command, and held briefings and discussions with other senior leaders from the command. The Senegalese CDS was accompanied by six other senior military officials on a tour that lasted from February 8th to 11th. He reportedly had discussions on security cooperation perspectives and plans for future activities with the command and its service components. The Senegalese military delegation was given in-depth briefings on various command programs as it toured component headquarters such as the Marine Corps Forces for Africa and the Special Operations Command for Africa.
The visiting delegation which comprised members from various branches of the country’s Armed Forces (Navy, Army, Air Force and Gendarmerie), also shared information about their programs and activities with the AFRICOM command.
Gen. Fall, commenting on the command’s partnership with Senegal, expressed appreciation for its efforts in “enhancing African capabilities and capacities to better face current security challenges, assisting armed forces in modernizing their tools, enhancing the capacities of their militaries in trying to make them more professional and also for their efforts in helping Africans better manage and involve themselves in global security issues.”
At the end of the visit, a series of joint and sponsored activities were agreed to be conducted between the AFRICOM command and the Senegalese Armed Forces. The partnership with Senegal will also continue with initiatives such as Africa Partnership Station, which focuses on building cooperative relationships to achieve common international goals such as stability and security.
To this effect, Gen. Fall said, “I’m very committed to keep on sharing this partnership with AFRICOM. I can say that we positively welcome all the proposals of the planned activities and I commit myself and my armed forces to participate in them.”