2022

ADF STAFF Touhoulia Elie slumped in his chair in the middle of Mbah-Laindé village in Cameroon as he spoke to a reporter. The young farmer lifted his shirt to show the scars on his back, a painful reminder of being kidnapped by extremists…

U.S. Africa Command Staff Sometimes it’s the unexpected threats that cause the most damage. A cyberattack can paralyze a nation’s power grid. Disinformation can send protesters to the streets and fuel civil unrest. Small, off-the-shelf…

President Mokgweetsi Masisi of Botswana spoke to Soldiers of the Botswana Defence Force at Sir Seretse Khama International Airport in Gaborone on July 26, 2021, as they prepared to leave for service in the Southern African Development…

story and photos by AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE For many peanut growers in the Paoua region of the Central African Republic, life is a daily battle. They have to coax the plants from the ground, harvest the nuts and shell them. Then they have…

ADF STAFF Uganda ended the world’s longest school closure on January 10, 2022, by ordering millions of students back to the classroom nearly two years after learning was suspended because of COVID-19. Students returned to schools…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE When it opened in 1960, the Ducor hotel in Monrovia, Liberia, was one of the only five-star hotels in Africa, boasting a nightclub and air-conditioned rooms, according to travel guides. It hosted VIPs such as…

ADF STAFF The cranes that unload containers from ships at two of South Africa’s busiest ports slowed nearly to a halt in July 2021. Trucks waited in line for 14 hours or more to pick up cargo. Ships were forced to anchor outside the…

Dr. Jabu Mtsweni is manager of the Information and Cyber Security Research Centre at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Pretoria, South Africa. Mtsweni spoke to ADF about the types of cyber threats African…

ADF STAFF Photos by: AFP/GETTY IMAGES As young men prowled the streets of Mocímboa da Praia with machetes and AK-47s on October 5, 2017, some townspeople peered through windows in fear, recording the defiant march on their cellphones.…

ADF STAFF Photos by: AFP/GETTY IMAGES fter Twitter deleted a post by Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari in 2021, Nigeria shut down access to the country’s most popular social media site for seven months. “The loss was humongous,”…