The Africa Research Institute of the Doctoral School of Safety and Security Sciences at the University of Óbuda and the Center for Military Studies at the University of Stellenbosch, South Africa (US CEMIS) held a hybrid scientific conference on 20 September 2023 entitled ‘Counter-Terrorism, Technology and Development in Africa’ (CTD2023). In the four sections of the symposium, the speakers examined current issues in the fields of human security, socioeconomics, technological development and cybersecurity, and leadership and corporate governance in more than fifty presentations. All the abstracts that were submitted and selected underscore the multifaceted challenges and opportunities that the African continent faces at the nexus of different topics the panels were to address. Professor Hussein Solomon with his keynote address entitled “Terrorism in the Sahel after the coup in Niger” opened the conference which finally included 50 presentations. With more than 100 guests, the conference finally reached 160 participants. All presentations reflected to the diverse range of challenges and opportunities both from global as well as African perspectives.
The National Cyber Coordinator of Hungary and the Head of the Doctoral School on Safety and Security Studies at Óbuda University Prof. Dr. Zoltán Rajnai concluded:
“Today’s conference had 50 presentations from 20 countries from all over the world, from both sides of the academia, scholars, researchers and PhD students, as well as researchers working for the government – or the private sector. […] The presenters have already started to send in their papers, the written versions of their presentations to the Journal of Central and Eastern European African Studies of the Óbuda University and to the Scientia Militaria: South African Journal of Military Studies of the Stellenbosch University.”
The Professor further added: “I would like to highlight that conferences like this one are the perfect examples that people with various backgrounds, from various countries can join and unite, and come together to share their thoughts, their findings, their solutions – or just the opposite, their new questions – and approaches to challenges, to introduce new ways, to report about new achievements that can be adopted elsewhere or be used to achieve even greater success…in the field of food security, counterterrorist activities or other fields of security co-operations. Sharing information and our own experience make it possible for us to learn from successes and learn from mistakes.“
Prof. Rajnai congratulated the Organising Team:
- Dr. Moses B. KHANYILE, Head of Centre for Military Studies Faculty of Military Science, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
- Prof. Dr. János BESENYŐ, Head of Africa Research Institute, Óbuda University, Hungary
- Lieutenant Colonel Jean-Pierre SCHERMAN, Researcher at Centre for Military Studies at the Faculty of Military Science, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
- Dr. David VOGEL, Senior Research Fellow at Africa Research Institute, Óbuda University, Hungary.
On behalf of the organisers special thanks were also given to Dr. Mhaka KHOZA, Head of the IT Team who made the conference run smoothly online across the numerous countries.
The annual event is part of the cooperation between the Bánki Donát Faculty of Mechanical and Security Engineering, University of Óbuda and the Center for Military Studies, University of Stellenbosch that has been signed in April 2021.
- Panel 1: Human security perspective
- Panel 2: Socio-Economic development
- Panel 3: Technology and cyber-security
- Panel 4: Leadership and corporate governance
The official booklet is available here: