2024

ADF STAFF Throughout 2023, the South African criminal group known as the West Gang terrorized the town of Inanda, just north of Durban. The group allegedly is responsible for a spate of robberies and more than 50 murders, including…

ADF STAFF Mariam sat in a debriefing session with a Congolese military intelligence official and described how a Ugandan rebel had claimed her as his wife and taken her to a camp in the forest. She felt safe enough in the military base in…

ADF STAFF Plans to hold a national election in Libya have sputtered for years. Abdulaye Bathily, the United Nations envoy to Libya, in late November urged the country’s rival factions to select representatives for a meeting aimed at…

ADF STAFF Chinese private security companies (PSC) are a growing presence in Africa, where they often are tasked with protecting major infrastructure projects connected to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. China claims about 10% of the…

ADF STAFF Uganda claimed a significant victory over the Islamic State group (IS) in November when it captured a senior commander known as “Njovu” during a raid in which six members of his group were killed. The fighters belonged to the…

ADF STAFF Fourteen-year-old Abel and some friends were playing in the remote north Ethiopian town of Adi Hageray, in the Tigray region, when one of them found a new toy. “We were throwing it at each other,” he told the International…

ADF STAFF An extremist organization linked to the Islamic State group used improvised explosive devices (IEDs) in six attacks on military patrols in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province over a three-week period ending Oct. 1. The attacks…

ADF STAFF Ghanaian leaders say a new era of military education and training has begun, as classes have commenced at the new war college amid plans to establish a full university system. President Nana Akufo-Addo laid out his vision for…

ADF STAFF As a guest of honor at the opening ceremony of the Ghanaian military’s annual Exercise Eagle Claws, Maj. Gen. Thomas Oppong-Peprah reflected on the field exercise that he created in 2020. The Chief of the Army Staff of the Ghana…

ADF STAFF Deep in Benin’s Pendjari National Park, a former luxury resort has become a military base. There, Soldiers are tracking the movements of extremists coming and going from neighboring Burkina Faso in an effort to stop a surge in…