Features

ADF STAFF There’s a fantastic amount of gold to be found in the Sahel. In addition to the region’s large-scale industrial mines, there are small artisanal mines — hundreds of them in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger — with people,…

ADF STAFF As the sun set on the final day of Ramadan, a muezzin called faithful Muslims to prayer. They solemnly prostrated themselves on prayer mats in a courtyard before enjoying the iftar, a dinner laid out on a communal table and…

ADF STAFF Abubakar Shekau had cheated death before. Several times since the brutal Boko Haram leader took control of the Nigeria-based violent extremist group in 2009, announcements of his demise had gone out. Each time they were…

ADF STAFF Students at the Government Science College in Nigeria’s Niger State were sleeping one night in February 2021 when more than 50 gunmen from a nearby forest raided the campus, with only a single guard to offer resistance. Even…

ADF STAFF It was 2 a.m. on a Saturday when the calm of night in a Burkinabe village was interrupted by the sound of motorcycles, then gunshots. Terrorists opened fire on residents of the gold-mining village of Solhan on June 5, 2021.…

Affectionately called the “Baba of Africa” or “Africa’s father,” Olusegun Obasanjo has spent time as a military officer, statesman, peacemaker and human rights advocate. Born in 1937 in southwest Nigeria, he spent more than 20 years in the…