USARAF hosts Anti-Terrorism roundtable discussion

Photo By Sgt. 1st Class Charles Stefan | Ms. Tanwa Ashiru, CEO/Founder of Bulwark Intelligence, speaks of the role of intelligence in counter terrorism during the U.S. Army Africa's 2018 round table discussion Aug. 28, 2018. (U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Charles Stefan)  

VICENZA, ITALY

08.31.2018

Story by Staff Sgt. Charles Stefan 

U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa

U.S. Army Africa’s annual anti-terrorism round table discussion brings together security professionals from across the African continent to discuss force protection initiatives and how to integrate U.S. Defense Department and State Department intelligence, as well as current security issues on the African continent. This event promotes synchronization across the force protection representatives from the service components, U.S. Africa Command and U.S. embassies to facilitate the protection of U.S. persons and facilities on the continent.

“I think it’s critical to have this event annually if not more (often),” said Col. Dave Segalla, the AFRICOM mission assurance division chief. “It gives us a face to face option. It gives us time to collaborate, to look forward into fiscal year 2019 and synchronize all of the efforts and determine how we can work more efficiently, more effectively, to protect the assets within (USARAF) and also all DOD assets on the continent.
“Every day there is a great group of professionals that is taking care of things behind the scenes to make sure the safety and the protections are in place for all our activities in support of our African partners,” he said. “Somebody is thinking about their protection every day.”

The USARAF Operational Protection Directorate hosted the event, held Aug. 28-30, at the Golden Lion hall on Caserma Ederle in Vicenza, Italy. Force protection representatives from Navy Africa, Air Force Africa, Combined Joint Task Force- Horn of Africa, Marine Forces Africa and Special Operations Africa; State Department regional security officers, office of security cooperation chiefs and force protection attachés assigned to Cameroon, Uganda, Kenya, Mali, Senegal, Ghana, Gabon, Niger, Nigeria, Chad and Burkina Faso; AFRICOM mission assurance; representatives from the 207th Military Intelligence Brigade, 79th Theater Sustainment Command, and other USARAF directorates attended the event.
“We have to do a ton of force protection assessments for all the theater security cooperation events and exercises,” said Capt. Katherine Munoz, who is assigned to USARAF OPD and the action officer for the event.

“Force protection has to be involved in all of the things that we do on the continent. That involves either going down beforehand or coordinating with our sister components. The most important part of this event is building cooperation in the sense of teamwork, facilitating and networking. We all are invested in the protection of U.S. persons, civilians and military.”

• Date Taken: 08.31.2018
• Date Posted: 09.21.2018 04:51
• Story ID: 292789
• Location: VICENZA, IT