ADF

Massad Boulos, the United States government’s senior advisor on Arab and African Affairs, has conducted his first official visit to Libya, where rival governments vie for power. A Lebanon native, Boulos, also the U.S. State Department’s senior advisor for Africa, met with Government of National Unity (GNU) Prime Minister Abdul Hamid Dbeibah in Tripoli and the Libyan National Army’s (LNA) Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar in Benghazi. Boulos emphasized the “importance of restoring calm, preventing violence and advancing political dialogue as we work together to enhance U.S.-Libyan cooperation that will benefit Americans and Libyans,” he wrote in a post on X.…

Ethiopia and Nigeria are joining forces to develop a fleet of African-made drones capable of both civilian and military applications. In recent weeks, Ethiopian officials hosted members of the Nigerian Air Force on tours of Ethiopia’s aircraft manufacturing and maintenance facilities. Nigeria has promised the Ethiopians a reciprocal visit focused on Nigeria’s military training institutions. The visits are the latest step toward increasing the number of indigenous African unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) in a market flooded by technology imported from China, Iran and Turkey. The collaboration is part of a broader demand — voiced repeatedly at this year’s Africa Chiefs…

The Islamic State West Africa Province terror group is waging war on remote military outposts in the Lake Chad region. The Institute for Security Studies recorded at least 15 ISWAP attacks in border zones this year. The bases targeted in the attacks were established to stabilize affected areas and allow displaced civilians to safely return home. A Boko Haram offshoot, ISWAP has demonstrated an evolution in its tactics during a campaign it calls Camp Holocaust. In early May, ISWAP fighters on motorcycles raided a Nigerian Army “supercamp” in Buni Gari in northeastern Yobe State; for years, the terror group relied heavily…

The year 2021 was marked by four coups in Africa. It was the crest of a wave of military rulers seizing power. After 10 years of relative stability on the continent, 10 coups took place between 2019 and 2023 in Burkina Faso, Chad, Gabon, Guinea, Mali (twice), Niger and Sudan (twice). United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres called it “an epidemic” and spoke of an “environment in which some military leaders feel they have total impunity” and “can do whatever they want because nothing will happen to them.” Salah Ben Hammou, a postdoctoral research associate at Rice University, has studied and…

More African governments are warning their citizens of the dangers of accepting bogus Russian scholarships, as many of the students who have accepted them have ended up conscripted into the Russian military and thrown onto the frontlines of the war in Ukraine. Ukraine captured and held people from Togo after they participated “in military operations alongside Russian armed forces,” Togo’s foreign ministry said on May 2. “[The] majority of compatriots, in particular young students, had left Togo under alleged scholarships offered by structures claiming to be based in Russia.” The ministry called on citizens, “particularly young people who wish to…

The Nigerian Army’s recent raids on Boko Haram turned up satellite uplink technology indicating that the terrorist group is using the Starlink system to communicate with the wider world from its hideout in the Sambisa Forest. Troops confiscated the technology in July, along with mobile phones and weapons during the Operation Hadin Kai counterterrorism campaign in Nigeria’s northeastern Adamawa and Borno states. Starlink’s system of satellite uplinks and wi-fi routers has become widespread among terror groups operating across the vast spaces of the Sahel, where other communication infrastructure is rare. Since 2023, videos and images posted to social media have…

An attack by the Islamic State-Sahel Province using suicide drones targeting an army post in Eknewan near the border with Mali killed 64 soldiers and marked the continuation of a troubling trend. “According to military sources, the attack lasted nearly three hours,” security analyst Zagazola Makama reported of the May 25 attack on his website. “[It] was the first to involve the use of kamikaze drones by the assailants, marking a dangerous new phase in the security challenges facing Niger. The use of explosive-laden drones reportedly played a critical role in breaching defenses and inflicting heavy casualties.” Counterterrorism efforts in…

More than 700 million people live in the continent’s urban areas. That number is expected to double by 2050, when the number of African cities with populations of at least 1 million is expected to reach 159, up from 60 currently. Exploding urban populations carry critical security challenges as large numbers of younger, often underemployed people compete for limited resources. This can lead to a rise in criminal gangs and terrorist organizations, some of which have already plotted attacks on major cities. According to the Africa Center for Security Studies, 587 of 4,930 African cities recorded fatalities linked to organized…

In the 21st century, the age of conventional war has given way to the age of irregular warfare. Militaries still face off directly in conventional fighting, but it is far less common than irregular warfare, where the attacks are sporadic, asymmetric and hard to detect. African military forces today are facing threats from state and nonstate groups that employ cutting-edge technology in their attacks. Cyberattacks on state infrastructure are becoming common, and the weaponization of artificial intelligence and other new technologies is on the horizon. There is no such thing as a standard threat, so there should be no such…

Ambassador Mohamed El-Amine Souef of Comoros, special representative of the African Union Commission Chairperson for Somalia and head of the AU Transition Mission in Somalia, addressed the United Nations Security Council in New York on October 3, 2024. His remarks have been edited for space and clarity. The recent months have witnessed a fluid security landscape in Somalia, characterized by progress and setbacks. The Somali Security Forces (SSF) intensified efforts to degrade al-Shabaab capabilities through improved targeted counterterrorism operations that led to the elimination of insurgent leaders and dismantling of several operational bases. Nonetheless, al-Shabaab has continued to deploy asymmetric…