This archive report was first published on 9 May 2020.
On May 6, 2020, the US military held a high-ranking virtual meeting with Rwandan and Kenyan officials to discuss air operations in Africa and lessons learned as they continued to fight through the COVID-19 pandemic.
The pandemic had forced even the military to adhere to health guidelines to mitigate its spread, according to a dispatch from the US-Africa Command.
Gen Jeff Harrigian, commander of United States Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa, held separate virtual meetings with Rwanda's Maj-Gen Emmanuel Bayingana and Maj-gen Francis O Ogolla of Kenya.
The meetings came in the backdrop of the downing of a Kenyan-registered cargo plane last week in the southern town of Bardale in Somalia, which was delivering medical supplies.
Kenya and Somalia have agreed to jointly investigate the crash that killed six people, with Somalia's President Mohamed Farmaajo assuring Kenya President Uhuru Kenyatta that the matter will be fully investigated.
Relations between the two countries have been lukewarm for almost a year over a maritime boundary dispute, and the investigations may also involve Ethiopia as the airstrip is also a military base for Ethiopian Amisom troops.
