ADF

Civilians in the Lake Chad basin are reporting more attacks by terrorists who loot their property and sometimes kidnap their female family members. The attacks have the hallmarks of a resurgence by the terrorist group Jama’atu Ahlis-Sunna Lidda’Awati Wal-Jihad (JAS), but they also have an added dimension — raids on military outposts in the region. JAS began in 2002 under its founder Mohammed Yusuf. After Yusuf’s death, JAS formed the core of the terrorism group identified as Boko Haram. In 2016, opponents of then-leader Abubakar Shekau split off to form Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). The two groups have…

Russia’s war on Ukraine has opened a dangerous front in Africa, as the Kremlin is exploiting and tricking job-seeking civilians into being part of its war machine. Kenyan authorities recently broke up a human trafficking ring accused of targeting vulnerable citizens with fake job opportunities in order to lure them to Russia, where they would be forced to fight against Ukraine. On September 24, the Transnational Organized Crime Unit of Kenya’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations found 21 Kenyan men who were “awaiting processing to Russia” at Great Wall Apartments, less than 20 kilometers from Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi.…

An unfamiliar, chemical-like odor wafted from a farm in the tiny, rural eastern South African town of Volksrust. Suspicious residents alerted authorities, who raided the farm in mid-September and uncovered a crystal methamphetamine laboratory and drugs worth $20 million. Authorities found industrial manufacturing equipment along with scales and lunch boxes filled with meth — known locally as “tik” — at the scene. They arrested five Mexican nationals and the farm’s caretaker, while two others escaped. Volksrust is in the Mpumalanga province, about 225 kilometers southwest of Johannesburg. The bust, the third such operation discovered in South Africa in recent years,…

Still contending with several significant infectious diseases, including cholera, Ebola and mpox, Southern Africa recently received a “game-changer” in the fight to prevent and contain outbreaks. As part of a civil-military partnership, Zambia’s National Public Health Institute took delivery of three mobile disease detection laboratories in late September from the United States Africa Command’s (AFRICOM) Office of the Command Surgeon and the U.S. Embassy in Lusaka. Calling it “a significant boost to regional health security,” the parties said in a September 26 statement that the new facilities and equipment are “poised to modernize infectious disease outbreak response across nine southern…

The French Navy on September 22 seized nearly 10 tons of cocaine worth $610 million from an unflagged fishing vessel in the Gulf of Guinea. About three weeks earlier, the French Navy nabbed nearly six tons of cocaine worth almost $375 million in the same area. These seizures highlight West Africa’s position as a transshipment node for cocaine shipments from Latin America. Since 2019, Western Balkan criminal groups have used West Africa as a key logistical, storage and redistribution hub for cocaine shipments bound for Europe and other areas. According to the 2023 Global Organized Crime Index, cocaine trafficking was the…

Somalia has unveiled a national strategy designed to counter improvised explosive devices, the deadliest weapon used by terror group al-Shabaab. The effort has been in the works since 2023 when experts conducted a baseline assessment of the country’s C-IED capabilities. The new strategy, announced at a September event in Mogadishu, provides a framework for adding more explosive ordnance disposal units to the Somali National Army (SNA) and improving interagency collaboration. “This is a historic milestone for our country. Never before have we had a unified, nationally owned framework to address the IED threat,” said Awes Hagi Yusuf Ahmed, Somalia’s national…

The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) have deployed a sophisticated new weapon in their fight against the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF): the locally-produced Safrouq drone, which is packed with anti-jamming technology and has a range of 600 kilometers. The Safrouq is a response to the RSF’s employing Belarus’ Groza-S electronic warfare system to identify and jam or trick the SAF’s incoming drones. The Safrouq represents the latest technological advancement as both sides of the conflict shift their tactics to airborne weapons and away from ground forces, which have largely reached a stalemate. The Safrouq can be used for reconnaissance, but…

Kenyans called it the “railway to nowhere” years before the phrase took on a literal meaning. Today, the end of the line for the vaunted Chinese-built Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) sits unused in a cornfield in the Rift Valley, about 468 kilometers short of its goal of reaching the Ugandan border. The SGR was supposed to be an economic boon for East Africa, stretching from Mombasa and Nairobi all the way to Uganda with plans to link up with Burundi, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and South Sudan. “The reality of what remains the single-largest infrastructure program Kenya…

Through radio jingles, posters, daily text messages and door-to-door visits, Sierra Leone’s public health officials are driving a messaging campaign aimed at preventing the spread of mpox. Experts say the effort has contributed to a sharp drop in new cases since they spiked in May. The campaign and other public health measures helped bring new cases down from 600 per week in May to about 26 per week as of the end of September, according to the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. The country’s fatality rate also declined sharply. “The case fatality rate was the key challenge for…

A marked increase in attacks by armed groups and terrorists on military bases and civilians across the central Sahel have occurred since the beginning of 2025 when Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger left the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which offered counterterrorism support. The three junta-led countries formed a defense force through their Alliance of Sahel States, but terror attacks by the al-Qaida-affiliated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), the Islamic State in the Sahel Province and their numerous splinter organizations have continued. The groups now also target border regions between Benin, Niger, Nigeria and Togo. “West Africa is becoming a…