Lieutenant General Abdoulaye Fall, chief of defense staff, Senegalese Armed Forces, made history February 11, 2010, by becoming the first African defense chief to visit U.S. Africa Command headquarters.

Fall attended an office call with General William E. Ward, commander, U.S. Africa Command, and held briefings and discussions with other senior leaders from the command.

"I’m very committed to keep on sharing this partnership with AFRICOM," said Fall.

Six other senior Senegalese military officials also visited the command headquarters February 8-11, to discuss security cooperation goals and plan future activities with the command and its service components.

"I can say that all the activities that have planned, well, we receive them very positively and I commit myself and my armed forces to participate in them," Fall said.

The delegation received in-depth briefings on various command programs and toured component headquarters Marine Corps Forces Africa and Special Operations Command Africa. The Senegalese officials, representatives from Senegal’s various Armed Forces branches (Navy, Army, Air Force and Gendarmerie), also shared information about their programs and activities.

Fall also commented on the command's partnership with Senegal, saying, he appreciated the efforts by U.S. Africa Command in "enhancing African capabilities and capacities to better face security challenges, assisting armed forces in modernizing their tools, enhancing the capacities of their militaries in trying to make them more professional ones and also their efforts in doing to help Africans better manage security issues and involve themselves in security issues."

The partnership with Senegal will continue with initiatives such as Africa Partnership Station, which focuses on building cooperative relationships to achieve common international goals such as stability and security.

Senegalese guests will depart Stuttgart February 12.