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Photo by: U.S. Africa Command Public Affairs 

MONROVIA, Liberia – U.S. Africa Command and the Armed Forces of Liberia concluded the West Africa Logistics Conference August 7, the latest in the series of events designed to organize how the U.S. and its partners in Africa source, stage, and move materiel throughout the continent.

This year’s conference drew more than 90 attendees from 22 participating nations and organizations.

“We expect this year’s conference to do even more than we’ve done before,” said U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. George “Dutch” Dietrich, Director of Logistics, U.S. Africa Command. “The last two conferences were fantastic events to understand our shared strengths and our challenges, and most importantly, to devise quantifiable, measurable, objective solutions to those challenges.  I expect that this conference will take that even further.”

Most Western Africa countries were represented at the conference, which also introduced newcomers from farther afield, including Morocco, Kenya, Algeria, and Botswana.   The strong participation reinforces the importance of logistics and the further development of the capabilities of these nations’ defense forces.

“Amateurs plan tactics, professionals focus on logistics,” said Dietrich.  “It’s a testament to the professionalism of our co-hosts, the Armed Forces of Liberia, and all of the partners that are here, that they’ve taken the time to invest in coming here to have this very rich discussion on how we can continue to build on a strong foundation of logistics.”

The conference grows the scope of several U.S. Africa Command sponsored tools, including the USAFRICOM African Mission Partners Environment, a virtual forum for hosting sharable information among African partners, especially information that’s critical to building out logistics networks across the region. By the end of the conference, the team added more than 50 new subscribers to the service, testifying to the long-term value of the tool.

The AFRICOM logistics team also led a discussion on the Assess, Advise, Advocate and Integrate Operational Assessment Model, called A3I.  The model takes in self-reported logistics data from African partners—supply nodes, fuel points, and air strips, for example—to build a holistic assessment of regional strengths and capability gaps.

Partners and team members then plan logistics capability growth efforts around those assessments, establishing specific, measurable, and achievable goals.

“We’re refining the product to fully map out all of our capacities, identify gaps, and think about how those gaps can be bridged,” said Lt. Col. Samio Kortu, Chief of Logistics, Armed Forces of Liberia, discussing Liberia’s progress with the A3I model. “It’s a very useful tool that’s going to help enhance our capability.”

For the first time at WALC, commercial vendors from the U.S. logistics industry engaged with the participants, supporting the A3I model’s objectives of advocating for solutions to overcoming capability gaps.  More than a dozen vendors from a broad swath of logistics disciplines were on hand to discuss challenges and solutions.

The West Africa Logistics Conference stands out as an event that quantifies its success year-over-year, mapping the conference’s content and objectives to U.S. national interests and the capability growth of partner forces in Africa.  These mutual interests and the strengthening of partner logistics capacity intersect here, providing a natural forum for engagement.

“Logistics underpin an effective military, and an effective military provides security for all of our countries,” said Ambassador Robert Scott, Deputy to the Commander for Civil-Military Engagement, U.S. Africa Command.

“The whole world is gravitating toward this one threat of terrorism,” said Maj. Gen. Davidson Forleh, Chief of Staff, Armed Forces of Liberia. “What we’re doing here today… tomorrow you’ll see the general [Dietrich] and I in one foxhole, we’ll be fighting one common enemy.”

“This conference is not about cents’ and dollars’ benefit,” said Forleh. “It’s about building the capacity, the human resource, because this is where we share experience.”

AFRICOM is one of seven U.S. geographic combatant commands, responsible for military engagement across 53 African nations. Working with partners and allies, the command counters malign actors and transnational threats, responds to crises, strengthens African security forces, and supports U.S. government efforts in Africa to advance U.S. national interests and promote regional security, stability, and prosperity.