ADF

Lakurawa, which began as a self-defense force in northwestern Nigeria, has evolved into a Boko Haram-aligned terrorist organization, preying on civilians and imposing its own strict version of Islamic law wherever it goes. “Lakurawa now cooperates with Boko Haram and operates as a hybrid actor, blurring the line between religious extremism and organized crime,” analysts Taiwo Adebayo, Célestin Delanga, and Remadji Hoinathy wrote recently for the Institute for Strategic Studies (ISS). According to the researchers, Lakurawa operates primarily in Nigeria’s northwestern Sokoto and Kebbi states and in bordering regions of Benin and Niger. Tense relations with Niger’s ruling junta have…

As Russia’s war on Ukraine staggers into its fifth year, the Kremlin is turning to increasingly deceptive and unusual recruiting methods. While playing a first-person military simulation game called Arma 3, two young South African men met a recruiter named @Dash on the social platform Discord. After several conversations, they met in Cape Town before visiting the Russian consulate, according to documents viewed by Bloomberg news service. “There have been quite a few examples of Russia recruiting people from around the African continent, but this is the first time we’ve come across them using gamers,” Bloomberg senior writer Antony Sguazzin…

ADF STAFF About 160 suspected members of the Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) terror group on January 11 attacked three factories and kidnapped four civilians, including a local official, in western Mali’s Kayes region. JNIM, like other terror groups in the Sahel, kidnaps for ransom to fund its operations, intimidate locals and gather intelligence. Kidnapping also is a way to forcibly recruit young people and skilled workers such as doctors and nurses. The kidnapping of local civilians for ransom is an evolving trend among these groups, which once relied more heavily on the kidnapping of foreigners for ransom. This change in…

To help Mauritania address growing security threats from the Sahel region and West Africa, the United States government in December 2025 donated a shipment of operational military equipment which will enhance field performance during upcoming military exercises, such as Flintlock 2026, which will be held in Libya and Côte d’Ivoire. Mauritanian political figure Daddai Bibaut noted that U.S. support has helped keep Mauritania free of terror attacks since 2011, although there are encroaching cross-border security threats, including those from the Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) terror group. JNIM in August 2025 captured the Malian town of Farabougou, near the Wagadou…

More than 570 cybercriminals were arrested as part of a sweeping international operation aimed at stopping online fraud operations. Interpol’s Operation Sentinel, part of its African Joint Operation Against Cybercrime, focused on cybercrime that involved business email compromise, digital extortion and ransomware. Business email compromise is a technique that uses the identity of a trusted figure, such as a company officer, to trick employees into providing money or revealing corporate secrets. Digital extortion and ransomware are similar methods of stealing personal information or locking down a computer system and then demanding money from the victim to regain access. The monthlong…

Authorities in semiautonomous Puntland State are warning that collaborations between Somali pirate groups and the Iran-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen represent a major threat to maritime security in the Horn of Africa. The growing relationship between the Houthis and Somalia’s al-Qaida affiliate, al-Shabaab, includes ties to piracy and has resulted in pirate groups using more sophisticated weaponry and technology acquired from the Houthis. Mohamed Musa Abulle, deputy director of intelligence for the Puntland Maritime Police Force (PMPF), said that some Somali pirate groups have acquired state-of-the-art GPS satellite devices and weapons from Houthi militants and people aligned with the rebel…

One year into his retirement, a Colombian military drone specialist noticed a WhatsApp message: “Any veterans interested in working? We’re looking for reservists from any force.” The job was in Dubai, United Arab Emirates (UAE), according to a man who claimed to be a former air force colonel. On a follow-up call, however, the veteran learned that he would undergo a few months of training in Dubai before deploying to Africa to conduct tactical reconnaissance. He declined the offer after a friend in UAE warned him that the job likely was in one of the worst war zones in the…

Somali fisherman Sadiq Mohammed Abdulle returned to shore with empty nets in a village near Mogadishu. The waters there once teemed with yellowfin tuna, shark, mackerel, snapper and grouper, but increasing instances of illegal fishing by foreign industrial trawlers has decimated the area’s fish stocks. “There’s a lot of big fishermen with big vessels that take all the fish,” Abdulle told Al Jazeera. “They are well-equipped. We have nothing. We don’t have proper equipment to catch the fish.” Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing costs Somalia $300 million annually. Much of the scourge is driven by Chinese vessels. China commands…

Mozambique’s leadership is weighing creating a national defense fund to finance its military at a time when the government has cut back on direct defense spending. One potential model for a Mozambican national defense fund is Turkey, which created its Defense Industry Support Fund in 2021 to supplement its military and defense sector. The government allocates a percentage of taxes to the fund. In 2024, the Turkish government proposed a system of levies on credit cards and other aspects of the economy intended to add $2 billion to the fund, which also receives income from the sale of military drones.…

Botswana recently joined a growing list of African countries whose citizens have been tricked into fighting for Russia in its war on Ukraine. The Ministry of International Relations said on December 15 that it has launched an investigation into reports of two young men who were taken to Ukraine to fight for the Russian Army. Batswana authorities are working through diplomatic channels to find the men and bring them home. “The ministry wishes to inform the public that it has received reports concerning two male Batswana youth, aged 19 and 20 years, who allegedly fell victim and succumbed to a…