ADF

Across the Sahel landscape, an old security feature is returning: fortified barriers. Inhabitants of rural towns are building rings of earthen walls and trenches in an effort to stop attacks by terrorist groups. A new study by researchers at the University of Florida found that, over the last 15 years, communities have built hundreds of kilometers of earthen fortifications around population centers. In fact, in northeast Nigeria and areas surrounding Lake Chad, all towns of more than 10,000 inhabitants are now surrounded by barriers large enough to be visible in satellite images. This investment in low-tech security roughly coincides with…

As naval leaders from across the continent gathered in Rabat, Morocco for the fourth annual African Maritime Forces Summit they acknowledged an array of threats. Illegal fishing, piracy, smuggling, terrorism and transnational crime all trouble African waters. But maritime leaders said the potential for growth and prosperity in the maritime domain far outweigh the threats. Unlocking this potential will require cooperation and innovation. “Maritime security represents the shared responsibility and the strategic priority that can only be achieved through sustained dialogue, mutual trust, coordinated action and effective partnership among all stakeholders,” Rear Adm. Mohamed Tahin, Inspector of the Royal Moroccan…

Terrorist groups increasingly are targeting roads, communities and commercial hubs within a 10-kilometer radius of mines in the Sahel, according to a new report by conflict monitor ACLED. Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), a coalition of extremist groups affiliated with al-Qaida, is the dominant rogue actor in the Sahel’s mining sector. It competes for access to and control over mines with the Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP) and with the governments of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger and their Russian partners, the Africa Corps. “As militant groups expand into new territories, violence often spreads beyond the mines, affecting routes, communities…

In Sierra Leone, the illegal activities of foreign industrial trawlers are decimating fish stocks and threatening the livelihoods of artisanal fishermen. Their average catches are down about 40% in recent years, according to Sierra Leone’s Fishermen’s Union. “The illegal fishing is too much,” union President Thomas Turay told the BBC. “The sea belongs to us, but for the foreign trawlers, they come at night and violate the seven-mile exclusion zone, they come right into the shore here.” Turay spoke from Tombo harbor near Freetown. He pointed to several industrial trawlers on the horizon, just outside the exclusive economic zone. At…

As terror groups from the Sahel encroach on coastal West African states, Mauritania has remained relatively peaceful. The country has not experienced a major terror attack since 2011, when militants affiliated with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, terror group attacked a gendarmerie post near the Malian border and abducted a military policeman. Analysts say Mauritania’s use of trained and certified Islamic female spiritual guides are a critical component of the country’s peacekeeping approach. Known as mourchidates, these women are certified by the state and deployed into prisons, schools, youth centers, hospitals and mosques, where they speak with young men…

Tuareg herders Ousmane Ag Sidi and Abdoulwahab Ag Mahamad were working in and around Zahro, a village on the Niger River in northern Mali. They had no known ties to terrorist groups. On June 23, they left the village and encountered members of a Malian Army patrol and their Russian partners from the Africa Corps. After the patrol left, residents were shocked to discover a gruesome scene: The men had been shot dead, and Ag Sidi’s body was dismembered, his arms and legs displayed in the shape of a swastika. Tilla Ag Zeini, head of the local human rights organization…

The Nigerian government’s Terrorist Prevention Act reclassified violent bandit groups, criminal gangs and kidnapping syndicates as terrorists in 2022. The goal was to allow state and federal security agencies to deploy tougher counterterrorism and military measures. But today, Nigeria has a festering bandit crisis that increasingly is intertwined with extremist militant activities, as gangs cooperate with established terrorist groups and blur the lines between crimes of opportunity and conflicts of ideology. “What began as sporadic attacks has now morphed into coordinated campaigns of terror affecting entire communities,” Nigerian scholar Onyedikachi Madueke wrote for the Conversation. With its roots in tribal…

While piracy is down in the Gulf of Guinea, the region remains the world’s hot spot for illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, and is frequently targeted by smugglers, traffickers, oil thieves and other organized criminal groups. The new Combined Maritime Task Force (CMTF) aims to address these threats. Established on June 1 by Côte d’Ivoire, The Gambia, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and Sierra Leone, the CMTF is the first joint, African-led maritime security effort to include a rapid response force. More countries are expected to join the task force, which will patrol 6,000 kilometers of coastline from Angola to Senegal.…

A northern region of Cameroon in the Lake Chad Basin has become a focal point of pressure by terrorists trying to deepen control, a study shows. The Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) is using violence, intimidation, economic pressure and propaganda to weaken authority in the isolated Darak district at the intersection of Cameroon, Chad and Nigeria, according to a study by the Institute for Security Studies. The region, the poorest in Cameroon, has struggled for years with the Boko Haram insurgency and its more powerful offshoot, ISWAP. “A combination of weak national integration and historic neglect by the state…

After years of losses to the joint military forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, the Islamic State Central African Province (ISCAP) is resurgent and launching attacks throughout northeastern provinces of the DRC. Tryphen Mabikinyambey, a member of the provincial parliament representing the town of Bafwasende, said ISCAP fighters recently attacked 12 villages in the Bambodi sector of Tshopo province. “The rebels feel at home there. They are at ease. We have already reported their presence, yet there has still been no appropriate response from the authorities,” he told HumAngle Media for a June 5 article. “The…