Executive Director Victor Salazar attended a Pan-African AMCF Conference in Nairobi, Kenya from 8-13 Sep 2008. Both formal presentations and informal one-on-one discussions demonstrated that historical, linguistic, cultural, political, geographical, and religious differences throughout the continent influence each nation’s citizens and its indigenous military in a unique way. OBI’s responses to expressed African needs will, therefore, necessarily require tailoring to the distinct needs of the nation and its military requesting assistance.

This is the first AMCF regional conference OBI has attended since recent establishment of a formal partnership with ACCTS, often a sponsor of such conferences worldwide. As OBI is currently developing a concept of support to an East Africa Community (EAC) Initiative, with Uganda assuming the lead role in the region, this conference afforded the organization an opportunity to better assess both needs and our current and anticipated future capabilities to meet them.

Instrumental toward that end, many meetings were conducted on site. Discussions were held with senior or national-level Christian military leaders from Democratic Republic of Congo, Cameroon, Zimbabwe, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Sudan, Mauritius, Ghana, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Guinea Bissau, Guinea, Botswana, Gabon and Angola. Our Executive Director also met with Joseph McCabe, Director, ACCTS MMI, UK; Janice Ransom, Director, Flame International; Chris Adsit, Author, “Combat Trauma Healing Manual” And Dickson Ogwang, ACCTS (USA) Representative.