Gen. James B. Hecker, U.S. Air Forces Africa Commander
Lt. Gen. Oscar Nyoni, Zambia Air Force Commander
Africa Regional Media Hub
MODERATOR: Good afternoon to everyone from the U.S. Department of State’s Africa Regional Media Hub. I welcome our participants logging in from across the continent and thank all of you for joining us. Today, we are very pleased to be joined by USAFE-AFAFRICA Commander, General James B. Hecker, and Zambia Air Force Commander, Lieutenant General Oscar Nyoni, as part of the Association of African Air Forces’ African Air Chiefs Symposium 2025. General Hecker and Lieutenant General Nyoni will discuss the U.S. commitment to partnerships with African nations and the efforts to operationalize the AACS.
We will begin today’s briefing with opening remarks from General James B. Hecker and Lieutenant General Oscar Nyoni and then we will turn to your questions. We will try to get to as many of your questions as we can during the briefing.
So I’d like to invite our panelists now to deliver their opening remarks. General Hecker.
GENERAL HECKER: Okay. Well, thank you, first, for the opportunity. We’re very excited to be able to address your audience today. And I can tell you just from my experience here, the Zambian air chief as well as the Zambian people have really welcomed this group of folks with open arms. The venue here has been fantastic, and we could not ask for anything better from the Zambian people.
Let me just kind of tell you a little bit about what this conference is about. First of all, the conference is called AACS, which is the African Air Chiefs Symposium. This is the 14th time that we have held such a meeting, and this occurs pretty much on a yearly basis, and it’s composed of the Association of African Air Forces. Back in 2015, the people that made up the Association of African Air Forces were only four countries. Today, we have 29 countries that are members of the African – Association of African Air Forces.
So it’s grown tremendously, and what we decided to do last year is try to operationalize everything that we are doing during the symposium. So what we did is we decided to have an exercise, and the exercise was a flood – so a humanitarian assistance disaster relief – that occurred here in Zambia. And then what we did is a table-top exercise where we got all the nations together – and there’s a total of 38 nations from Africa that are here, and of course 29 of those are part of the Association of African Air Forces – and we went over what we would – what would we do if this happened? And it was a very fruitful table-top exercise because instead of just having one country – in this case, Zambia – dealing with the flood, we had 29 different nations offering different aircraft, offering assistance. And questions came up, like: Well, who’s going to pay for the fuel? Do we have to bring our own fuel down? How are we going to get diplomatic clearances to get overflight of certain countries? And all these questions were brought up, and this is something that you don’t want to be brought up during a humanitarian assistance disaster relief effort.
So these are now brought up in advance, so if we did have one of these situations occur a week from now, we’re going to be much better prepared and Africa will be much better prepared to support Zambia during this critical time.
With that said, I’ll turn it over to General Nyoni for your opening comments.
LIEUTENANT GENERAL NYONI: Well, thank you very much for this opportunity to be a part of this team. At the onset, I want to say that it’s been a pleasure to be a host of this very fantastic gathering of air chiefs from all parts of Africa. I want to say that I think the enthusiasm and the contributions that have been brought on board by the African chiefs from all over Africa – that’s Southern Africa, East Africa, West Africa, and the North – has been fantastic. And seeing the contributions from them and their desire to be able to contribute towards solving African problems is highly appreciated. And for us as Zambia, being at the center of it, it’s something that I think is very, very encouraging and inspiring.
Thank you.
MODERATOR: Thank you very much, gentlemen. So we will now begin the question-and-answer portion of today’s briefing.
So first question comes from Mr. Kamel Mansari of the Jeune Independent in Algeria, and the question is: “Will the AACS symposium be addressing this year’s issues and conflicts in the African continent like, for example, the civil war in Congo and in Sudan?” So I’d like to ask our panelists if they can reply to that question, please.
GENERAL HECKER: No, it won’t. We are strictly here at the African Air Chiefs Symposium concentrating on humanitarian assistance/disaster relief. We are not getting into the political realm during this conversation, and we’re going to concentrate on humanitarian assistance/disaster relief.
MODERATOR: Okay, very good. Thank you very much. So we have another question, and this is related to the hosting of the AACS. So I understand that the co-hosts of the African Air Chiefs Symposium changes each year. How has the partnership with Zambia been this year? And maybe you could speak a little bit to the operation of hosting the AACS and how those decisions are made.
GENERAL HECKER: Can I – I’ll do the first part of that and then I’m going to hand it over to the host. So I just want everyone to know, this is an African-led operation. So the host is, in this case, Zambia and General Nyoni. I am the co-host for this, and he is the host. So I’ll let the host speak to that.
LIEUTENANT GENERAL NYONI: Yeah, it’s been a wonderful experience hosting the African Air Chiefs Symposium because this symposium has brought together air force chiefs from across Africa. And the start of it has shown that the chiefs that have come for this symposium are all eager and desirous to contribute towards making this symposium a success and, of course, further operations successful. And this has been seen from their contributions in the positive sense.
And so I think it’s been exciting because logistically I think we’ve tried to meet all the requirements, and also creating space for the discussions and an environment that is suitable and accommodating to everybody present. And I think so far it’s been a wonderful experience.
MODERATOR: All right, thank you very much. So Pearl Matibe of Premium Times has her hand up. Pearl, we can open your mike, if you’d like to ask your question to the panelists.
QUESTION: Thank you very much, Johann. I appreciate the opportunity. I’d like to find out if you could speak to the scale of the event. I know you talked about going back the year when it was first established. So what I want to understand is how has it grown? So for this event, how many African participants are taking part and how many African countries are taking part so that I can understand the scale and scope of the event? And so can you just clarify also what was the first year that it was established? In other words, how old is this event? Thank you.
GENERAL HECKER: Yeah, the – it’s kind of hard to pinpoint this. This is our 14th annual event, okay, and we’re in 2025 now so you can back that up. The – and that’s for the African Air Chiefs Symposium. Okay, 14th event that we’ve had. In 2015 is when the Association of African Air Forces began, and it was only four people during that time. That four people – or four people – that it was four countries. That four countries has grown to 29 countries that we have participating in the Association of African Air Forces. However, we invite folks that aren’t part of the Association of African Air Forces as well. So this event actually has 38 countries, of which 29 of them are members of the association of African forces – and those other members that were invited have the ability, if they would like to, to join the Association of African Air Forces.
LIEUTENANT GENERAL NYONI: Yeah, exactly. I think that, like I said earlier, 29 member-states have attended, and we are hoping that by the close of this conference maybe one or two more may add on to the number. However, the total number of countries that attended are 38, and the difference is from those of friendly African countries that we thought need to see what we are able to do so that they can be a part of it. The more the numbers of the African countries participating, from our angle, the better, because ourselves being members of this same association, we’ve seen the benefits that we can gain from being a member. Thank you.
MODERATOR: All right. Thank you very much, gentlemen. Our second – sorry, next question goes to Paul Onogwu of KCC Communications, Super FM in Nigeria. Paul’s question is about the Boko Haram insurgency. And his question is: “What role can the U.S. Air Force play in helping the Nigerian military achieve air superiority over these terrorists in a way and manner that gives ultimate protection to innocent civilians?”
GENERAL HECKER: Well, I think as you know, the U.S. Government has provided training and equipment to Nigeria for quite a while so hopefully that will help them out. But the – what we’re looking at in this conference is not that. We’re not talking about air superiority or conflict. We’re talking about how we can help each other – African nations can help one another – and that’s what the goal of this conference is.
MODERATOR: All right. Thank you very much. Next question – it’s on a related topic: “Many of the nations participating are facing threats like terrorists group operating inside their borders. How can air power be leveraged in the fight against threats like terrorism, illegal trafficking, and insurgency?”
LIEUTENANT GENERAL NYONI: Well, about 10 participating countries are facing threats against terrorism, and in this particular context, I think going forward maybe we could look at some of those threats. But currently, like General Hecker said, we are concentrating on the current problem that we are facing, which is the droughts and possibly floods in this region. Thank you.
MODERATOR: Okay. Thank you very much. That’s very clear. So we have a question from Senegal, Mr. Malick Kane of AFRIG Magazine: “What strategic importance does Dakar have, the westernmost point on the continent, when it comes to U.S. Air Force operations?”
GENERAL HECKER: Well, obviously, it’s very strategically important to us, but there’s several areas amongst all the African nations that have strategic importance. But that is definitely one that we have, and we continue to work with the nations to be able to take these strategic points and use them in a good way that benefits all of Africa.
MODERATOR: All right. Thank you very much. So you’ve spoken about operationalizing the Air Chiefs Symposium. What does that mean exactly, and what needs to happen for it to be considered operational? When do you think that would happen? Just expanding a little bit on this concept of operationalizing.
LIEUTENANT GENERAL NYONI: From my angle, operationalizing is to make sure, first, that all the basic parameters are met where every member understands the purpose for which this organization is in existence. And so, once everybody understands it, that means that we can operate more effectively and more efficiently, and that is the stage that we are almost concluding now. And I think going forward in the next few months or so, we’ll be able to actualize this and be able to practice and see how the standard operation procedures that have been put in place, which every member-state understands, are in action.
And so, for us to be an effective institution, all the members should be able to understand how we can be able to contribute and what assets we can contribute and put together to be able to answer to the problems that we are trying to sort out.
GENERAL HECKER: I one hundred percent agree with General Nyoni. What we’re doing here is the beginning of this exercise. It’s called a table-top exercise. What we’ll do in – around the May timeframe of 2026 is a command-post exercise. And then the culmination of all that will be a live-flight lifeline exercise that will occur in Kenya in November of 2026. So what we’re doing on paper now is setting the groundwork for a live-flight exercise with all members of the Association of African Air Forces participating in this live-flight exercise in November of 2026 in Kenya.
MODERATOR: Thank you very much. So we also have a question from Mr. Eric Schmitt of The New York Times. The question is: “The U.S. has recently conducted airstrikes against ISIS in Somalia. Please assess the significance of those strikes, and the threat that ISIS-Somalia and its leadership pose.”
GENERAL HECKER: Yeah, well, they’re significant, because they were high-value targets that threatened African nations and threatened the United States. So we will continue to go after terrorist organizations that threaten our African partners as well as the United States. But again, that’s not the emphasis of this particular conference.
MODERATOR: Thank you very much. So in a related vein, there’s another question: “Why is it that this symposium is focusing on a humanitarian assistance and disaster relief scenario? How did you come to that decision to make that the focus, and what kind of – what does that mean for the way the symposium will play out?”
LIEUTENANT GENERAL NYONI: We are focusing on humanitarian assistance and disaster relief as these are some of the worst enemies of the continent’s development. By alleviating the suffering of the people, we will be promoting human dignity and as well as unity in the continent.
MODERATOR: Okay. Thank you very much. So another question is I understand that in the symposium you’re going to be – well, first of all, it’s called the Air Chiefs Symposium, but you’re going to be creating an enlisted handbook. So what’s that all about, and what would be in the handbook?
GENERAL HECKER: Well, starting in 2021 the African Air Chiefs Symposium started to include our senior enlisted leaders. And I think it was noted by all member nations that the backbone of any air force is going to be its noncommissioned officers. So that was a great change that was made in 2021. Since that time, they’ve been putting together an NCO handbook, which is basically an agreement amongst all the nations at a very strategic level, a broad level, of how our NCOs should be trained. And we put that to a vote here just recently, and I’m glad to say that it was passed. And that is something that now will be a part of all of the African nations that are part of this conference.
MODERATOR: All right, thank you very much. So we have one follow-up question, if you don’t mind, from Pearl Matibe. I’m just going to go ahead and read it: “What is the United States contributing in terms of resources as co-host, and what did the hosts need in terms of resources?”
GENERAL HECKER: We helped provide some of the travel arrangements that are gone, but the host pays for quite a bit of it too, so it’s kind of shared between both the host and some of the U.S. So it’s a shared operation, and it’s very fruitful, but we – at the last AACS we had a vote and it was decided that Africa would actually pick up more of the costs, and they voted on that themselves. So that was a good conclusion, I think, for all of us.
MODERATOR: All right. Thank you very much. And I think we have time really just for one last question, and then we’ll have to go to concluding remarks. So from Kemi Osukoya of Africa Bazaar magazine, Kemi asks: “Could you” – and this might be, we might be getting a little ahead of the results of the symposium, so I apologize. Just let us know if this is something that you haven’t gained out yet. But Kemi is asking: “Could you talk about how you would provide humanitarian assistance if something was to happen?” And again, this might be predicting a little bit the results of the symposium – don’t want to do that. But what can you tell us about this?
LIEUTENANT GENERAL NYONI: Could you say the question again?
MODERATOR: How would humanitarian assistance be provided if there was a need for it, if there was a natural disaster or what have you?
LIEUTENANT GENERAL NYONI: Okay, I think it would be easily provided by the member-states contributing whatever they are able to contribute – that is in form of foodstuffs, logistics, supplies, and also the aerial vehicles that would be participating in this same support. Remember, we are an air force – we are air forces that have come together, and with our friends from the U.S. and all the other member-states, it becomes easier for logistics to come on board and makes it easy for the one who is in trouble to be assisted. The more the numbers, the better for us. And so in short, it is easier if one – if more people are available to provide support as opposed to less people.
GENERAL HECKER: And this is exactly what we saw on day one when we did the table-top exercise. We intentionally did not give any U.S. support, and we let the 29 nations, member nations in Africa, offer up different capabilities. And you can imagine – one country is great at something; another country is great at something else. But the influx of having 29 nations together talking, Zambia saying, “Here’s what I need,” the others saying, “Here’s what I can give you,” and somebody else saying, “Well, I can fly it for you” definitely helped out.
MODERATOR: All right, thank you very much, gentlemen. You’ve been very generous with your time. I think we are going to have to wrap this up, so I wanted to ask if you have any final and concluding remarks.
LIEUTENANT GENERAL NYONI: Thank you very much. From Zambia’s point of view, I want to say that it’s been very exciting to host the member-states, the 29 countries, plus the invited guests – total 38 – and all willing and eager to support the cause of the organization. We – going forward, we hope that the resolutions that we’ve agreed upon as African nations, member-states, will go a long way into alleviating some of the challenges that come. Remember, some of these things come unannounced and they can affect anybody at any time. And so it is very gratifying that we are hosting this symposium at a time that we have seen the effects of drought as Zambia, and we know exactly what it means to seek support from other willing nations. Thank you.
GENERAL HECKER: Well, I couldn’t agree with General Nyoni any more. It’s been a great conference. We’re about halfway through right now, and it’s been expertly managed. As everyone out there can attest to, when you host 38 nations, a lot of things can go wrong, but they haven’t, and that’s because of our terrific hosts. The Zambian people, Zambian Air Force, the Zambian Government have all been behind this and put on a first-class exercise, and we’re really looking forward to the next two days.
MODERATOR: All right, thank you. That’s a very inspiring way to wrap up. I’m delighted to hear that it’s going so well and that there’s so much progress being made.
So for the journalists, that does conclude today’s briefing. I want to thank USAFE and AFAFRICA Commander, General James B. Hecker, and Zambia Air Force Commander, Lieutenant General Oscar Nyoni, for joining us today. Thank you to all the journalists who participated. A recording and transcript of today’s briefing will be distributed to participating journalists as soon as we produce them. If you have any questions about today’s briefing, please contact us at the Africa Regional Media Hub, and the email address is AFMediaHub@state.gov. I would also like to invite everyone to follow us on X at our handle, @AfricaMediaHub. Thank you and have a great day, everybody.