Defense Attaché's Office
The United States Embassy Kinshasa has a small Defense Attaché Office, which serves three traditional roles:
USDAO Kinshasa’s mission is to represent the U.S. Secretary of Defense, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Commander of U.S. Africa Command in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Republic of the Congo. To accomplish this mission its personnel advise the respective U.S. Ambassadors to these countries on military matters, implement a variety of bi-lateral military engagement programs, and report political-military developments in a timely and thorough manner.
The U.S. Defense Attaché, an Army Lieutenant Colonel, leads USDAO Kinshasa and serves as the U.S. Ambassadors’ principal military advisor. He is aided in this role by an Assistant Army Attaché, an Army Major. An Operations Coordinator, an Air Force Chief Master Sergeant, manages the daily operations of the DAO, assisted by an Army operations noncommissioned officer and two locally engaged staff.
Among the programs managed by USDAO Kinshasa are a study of sexual and gender based violence in eastern DRC, a U.S. Army Medical Institute for Infectious Diseases study of Monkeypox in Kole, a cultural and language immersion program for cadets from the U.S. Military Academy in Kikongo, and coordinating the U.S. Government’s security sector reform efforts with those of the European Union Security Cooperation Mission in the Congo and the United Nations Mission in the Congo.