ADF

ADF STAFF Central African journalist Ephrem Yalike-Ngonzo recalls the first time he was approached by a Russian man named Micha who offered him 200,000 CFA francs (about $320) per month to spread disinformation and propaganda for the Kremlin. The year was 2019, and the money was more than twice his salary as editor-in-chief of a local pro-government news website called Le Potentiel Centrafricain. “In the Central African media, few people earn more than 150,000 CFA francs (about $240),” Yalike told Radio France Internationale. Yalike exposed Russia’s sprawling disinformation operation in the Central African Republic (CAR) as part of a two-year…

ADF STAFF Since Russia invaded Ukraine, it has extracted at least $2.5 billion worth of gold from Africa through illicit operations facilitated by its paramilitary forces. That money, taken from artisanal and small-scale mines in Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Eritrea, Guinea, Libya, Mali and Sudan, “has been funneled back into the Russian war machine,” according to a World Gold Council report published in November. “The mysterious death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Russian mercenary Wagner Group, in a plane crash in August 2023, has not curtailed Russia’s looting and pillaging of natural resources around the world —…

ADF STAFF After years of restricting online dissent, Zambia emerged in 2024 as a model for improved internet freedom, according to the most recent Freedom on the Net report by Freedom House. Zambia saw the biggest improvement in internet freedom of the 72 countries studied between mid-2023 and mid-2024. On a scale of 0 (not free) to 100 (free), Zambia improved from 59 in 2023 to 62 in 2024. In recent years, Zambia has improved its online environment. In 2022, the government abolished Section 67 of the Penal Code Act that punished people for defaming the president. In December 2023,…

ADF STAFF As United Nations peacekeeping missions in Africa face criticism, protests and, in some cases, are being forced to withdraw, the mission in the Central African Republic has bucked the trend. In November, the U.N. Security Council renewed MINUSCA’s mandate for another year, news that was met with approval by the host country’s government and civil society groups, according to published reports. “MINUSCA is a strategic partner of the Central African government,” Maxime Balalou, spokesman for the CAR government, told Radio Ndeke Luka. “MINUSCA has done a lot for the government, even if we’ve had some challenges. … With…

ADF STAFF At first glance, and by design, Russian Houses in Africa appear to be like any other nation’s cultural exchange centers. On its Facebook page, the Russian House in Bangui, the capital of the Central African Republic (CAR), calls itself “an educational and cultural platform.” They are closely linked to Rossotrudnichestvo, the official Russian agency for international cooperation. But experts and investigative journalists say Russian Houses are central to the Kremlin’s vast disinformation and propaganda operation on the continent. Rossotrudnichestvo signed agreements in 2024 to formally establish Russian Houses in the CAR, Chad, Equatorial Guinea, Guinea, Nigeria, Sierra Leone…

ADF STAFF More than 930,000 people have fled Sudan’s civil war for eastern Chad, the majority of them arriving in the Ouaddaï province, where locals already faced extreme poverty and ethnic tensions. The Sudanese refugees are mostly women and children from North Darfur and West Darfur, whose capital, Al-Geneina, was the scene of abuses against non-Arab populations in 2023. The large influx of refugees traumatized by the atrocities committed by the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan is “importing new grievances against the Arab community, which are fueling the prejudices of Ouaddaïans,” according to a new report by the…

ADF STAFF The Tunisian Air Force continues to expand its transport fleet with the addition of a another C-130 Hercules plane from the United States. It is the third such plane delivered to Tunisia since 2021. The aircraft was handed over during a November 18 ceremony at Sidi Ahmed Air Base in Bizerte, presided over by the Chief of Staff of the Tunisian Air Force, Lt. Gen. Mohamed Hajem and Defense Minister Khaled Sehili. The delivery of the C-130H aircraft, valued at a total of 36 million Tunisian dinars ($12 million), continues to expand the Tunisian Air Force’s air transport…

ADF STAFF Increasing instability in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger has created an opening for Turkey to deploy private military contractors to the region. However, the deployment comes as Islamic extremists are inflicting casualties on Russian contractors and may turn their weapons on Turkey’s fighters as well, analysts say. Earlier this year, Turkey’s Sadat International Defense Consultancy, a private military contractor closely allied with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, sent 1,100 fighters recruited from Syrian refugee camps to Niger. The fighters were positioned in the hotly contested Liptako-Gourma region, where the three Sahelian countries meet. Violence perpetrated in that region by…

ADF STAFF Constance was 13 years old when she left her home in North Kivu province in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to join a militia called the Alliance of Patriots for a Free and Sovereign Congo. Child soldiers are known as kadogos, which means “little ones” in Swahili. Despite her small stature, she carried rocket-propelled grenades and supported fighters on the battlefront against M23 rebels. “I went to war,” she told The Guardian from a displacement camp near the provincial capital, Goma. “It was a nightmare.” Experts say the recruitment of children has surged since…

ADF STAFF As part of the fight against illegal fishing, drug and human trafficking, piracy, oil theft, and other sea crimes in the Gulf of Guinea, navies and coast guards from more than two dozen countries participated in the Grand African Navy Exercise for Maritime Operations (NEMO) 2024. The exercise, an annual maritime security event led by the French Navy, focused on strengthening coordination across five operational zones in the Gulf of Guinea. It was launched at the Multinational Maritime Coordination Centre in Accra, Ghana. At the opening ceremony, Ghana Chief of Naval Staff Issah Adam Yakubu said that the exercise…