ADF

About 80% of the world’s oil trade moves through the Western Indian Ocean, which faces escalating maritime threats, including attacks on shipping; illicit trafficking; illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing; piracy; and terrorism. These challenges pose broader threats to regional and global security. Against this backdrop, the third annual Africa Maritime Forces Summit (AMFS) was held June 23-27 in Mauritius. The event attracted military and government leaders from 45 nations. “This summit is an opportunity for all the maritime forces, especially from Africa,” Mauritania Navy Master Chief Petty Officer El Kentoaui Mohamed said. “Thanks to this summit, we’ve had very…

Ghana’s fisheries sector directly and indirectly employs about 2.2 million people who process, sell, transport, wash and descale fish. However, 90% of Ghanaians surveyed by Harvard researchers said they do not believe their children will be able to depend on fishing or related trades in the future. Similar sentiments were expressed in Côte d’Ivoire and Nigeria. This is mainly because Ghana and other West African nations have for decades been victimized by industrial fishing trawlers, many from China, which engage in a variety of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. China is the world’s worst illegal fishing offender, according to…

A Ukrainian drone in late April hit the Alabuga Special Economic Zone in Russia’s Tatarstan region, where kamikaze drones are made by factory workers, many of them women from Africa. Although there were no reported casualties, several African women were wounded last year in a similar drone attack on the Alabuga factory, about 1,000 kilometers east of Moscow. African women working at the factory may not have realized they would be working in a war zone when they applied for their jobs. Many responded to social media ads promising employment with good pay and a new life in Russia. The…

As terror groups continue to launch attacks in the Sahel, some fear that the day will come when insurgents march into a capital city and topple the national government. This would follow a similar pattern that occurred in Syria and Afghanistan when state control collapsed virtually overnight. However, analysts at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) believe that the occupation of Bamako, Niamey or Ouagadougou by Sahel-based terrorists is unlikely in the short term. “They lack the firepower and logistical capabilities to sustain a prolonged siege and occupation of a major city,” wrote ISS analysts Djiby Sow and Hassane Koné.…

African nations have become a testing ground for hybrid warfare tactics in recent years, a development that experts say requires nations to improve their cyber defenses, strengthen community bonds and make populations more resilient to attacks. “The stakes are high,” Armand Badenhorst, a former member of the South African Police Service, wrote recently for defenceWeb. False information “can incite violence, erode trust in institutions, and even derail military operations.” Spreading false information is part of a hybrid warfare strategy that combines conventional military tactics with cyberattacks and other non-kinetic methods designed to sow distrust and discord among a nation’s populace.…

Russian mercenary organization Wagner Group is being replaced in the Sahel by the state-controlled Africa Corps. However, it seems unlikely that the change will alter Russian mercenaries’ brutal methods in the terrorism-plagued region, according to experts. The shift might make conditions in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger even worse, analysts argue in a paper published by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. Since the Wagner Group arrived in Mali in 2021 and Africa Corps came to Burkina Faso and Niger in 2024, little has happened to quell the violence that has made the region the global leader in terrorism.…

Shock and frustration colored Abdelaziz Ali’s face as he walked out of the primary school where he worked in Khartoum. Like so much of Sudan’s capital, the school was littered with the wreckage of war. He emerged from one of the buildings with an unused artillery shell that he found under a pile of cloths. “How wouldn’t I be afraid?” he told Reuters news service. “Every day I find two containers filled with ammunition and [rocket-propelled grenades] and other explosives, all in here, a children’s school. All of these things need to be cleared.” Sudan’s civil war has played out…

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) recently took control of the country’s northwestern corner that borders Egypt and Libya. The move could allow greater access to weapons flowing from Libya while raising the potential for Sudan’s war to spread to neighboring countries. The fighting displaced about 4,000 people, some of whom fled into Egypt for shelter and then were forced to seek refuge in Libya. The strategic El Uweinat region surrounds Jebel Uweinat, a huge rock formation that has been an important landmark for centuries along the trade route that links Kufra, Libya, and Dongola, Sudan. Studies say that Jebel…

The Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin terror group unexpectedly stormed the northern Burkina Faso town of Djibo early May 11 and began an onslaught that killed more than 100 civilians, Soldiers and paramilitary members. The jihadists, known as JNIM, also abducted dozens of Soldiers and civilians, including women. Videos on social media showed JNIM fighters looting and destroying an Army camp and gendarmerie and police headquarters. According to the International Crisis Group, the terrorists also torched a medical center, pharmacy and market. The al-Qaida-affiliated group has gradually gained strength since its formation in 2017. Citing regional and Western officials, The Washington Post…

Moroccan Royal Armed Forces Brig. Gen. Aziz Idrissi Yazami stood in front of a packed conference room and painted a picture of the numerous security challenges facing Africa. Terrorism and extremist ideology, inter-state conflict, humanitarian crises and natural disasters are all too common across the continent and are taking place amid the proliferation of weapons and emerging technology in the hands of non-state actors. There never has been a greater need for leadership, Yazami said. His opening remarks leaned staunchly into the themes of this year’s African Senior Enlisted Conference: Resilient, Adaptive, Transformative. “It is essential that [noncommissioned officers] are…