ADF

ADF STAFF The 2023 ENACT Organized Crime Index for Africa explicitly links armed conflict and a lack of democratic institutions to an increase in organized crime. The report, authored by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) and funded by the European Union, was released in late November. It showed that criminal markets, such as human trafficking and weapons trafficking, have increased around the continent over the past five years. Although there was a modest increase in resilience to crime from 2021 to 2023, the continent still had the lowest resilience levels globally, the report found. “The results are…

ADF STAFF A forensic laboratory in northern Botswana will play a vital role in the effort to disrupt the illegal trade in wildlife, according to the lab’s supporters. “The forensic laboratory will scientifically investigate and prosecute wildlife trafficking crimes through interagency law enforcement support, and this will entail collection, storage and analysis of evidence,” Botswanan President Mokgweetsi Masisi said as he recently broke ground for the facility along with U.S. Ambassador to Botswana Howard Van Vranken. The laboratory is supported by a $2.7 million grant from the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. Researchers at…

ADF STAFF The Zambia Ministry of Defence in late October signed a five-year deal with United States company Landlock Natural Paving Inc. to construct 5,000 kilometers of road throughout the country’s 10 provinces. Construction is slated to begin in March or April 2024, depending on weather. Zambian Defence Minister Ambrose Lwiji Lufuma said the technology Landlock uses costs one-sixth of the standard cost per kilometer and produces roads more durable than “gravel roads that easily get washed away.” “Not only do we intend to create jobs, we will ensure that there is skills transfer so that a good number of…

ADF STAFF With growing demand for electricity, African nations are exploring the potential for nuclear power — a prospect that has prompted calls for better training aimed at safeguarding nuclear materials against potential terrorist threats. South Africa is the lone country on the continent with a functional nuclear power station, which it plans to expand in 2024. Algeria, Ghana, and Morocco operate research reactors capable of generating small amounts of radioactive material. Egypt, Morocco and Uganda are actively working on agreements to develop their own nuclear power programs and could have functioning reactors within less than a decade, according to…

ADF STAFF As one regional force departs the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), another is arriving to take its place. At the request of the Congolese government, the East African Community Regional Force (EACRF) has begun its withdrawal while the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is deploying to the chaotic battlefield that is the eastern DRC. “EACRF will be handing over security responsibilities in eastern DRC to SADC forces,” the regional force said in a December 3 post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Elaborate plans have been put in place to ensure a smooth handover…

ADF STAFF Community leaders in Babanousa in Sudan’s West Kordofan State hoped their truce with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) would prevent the violence that has devastated the country from consuming their community. They were wrong. The truce came after an assault by RSF fighters on the SAF’s 22nd Infantry Division the previous week that sent Babanousa residents fleeing for their lives. On November 30, one day after the truce was signed, two shells fell on the base, injuring one SAF soldier. This is one of many signs that the fighting is expanding and…

ADF STAFF West Africa has transitioned over the past decade from a transit route for illegal drugs headed to Europe from South America to a booming illegal drug market with a troubling rise in domestic users. That is among the findings of a three-year study by the West African Epidemiology Network on Drug Use (WENDU) that examined emerging trends in regional drug and substance use, prevalence, and treatment from 2020 to 2022. The study was coordinated by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Weak and ineffective governance institutions, socio-economic challenges, political instability and overlapping security issues drove the…

ADF STAFF Gladys Kamasanyu frequently travels about an hour outside of Uganda’s capital, Kampala, to the Entebbe Zoo, where she feeds, pets and even talks to rhinos, elephants, pangolins and other endangered animals. She also talks to the staff at the zoo, known as the Uganda Wildlife Conservation Education Center, to get updates on smuggling, trafficking and poaching. These crimes often are linked to international crime syndicates and high demand associated with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). As the chief magistrate of Uganda’s Standard Utilities and Wildlife Court, the first of its kind in Africa, Kamasanyu considers herself a voice for…

ADF STAFF Recent interethnic fighting in the disputed Abyei Administrative Area between Sudan and South Sudan is the latest complication in the already complex effort to resolve the region’s status — an effort that is being sidetracked by the conflict in Sudan. An attack on two communities within Abyei on November 20 left dozens dead and a leader of the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF) defending his Soldiers against claims they participated in the attack. The attack was preceded by fighting on November 13 between the Twic and Ngok factions of the Dinka ethnic group that included an attack…

ADF STAFF Angola has spent most of its time as an independent nation at war. It knows the cost of conflict and the dividends of peace. Now, more than 20 years after a peace agreement was signed to end the country’s civil war, Angola is trying to export peace across Africa through mediation and peacekeeping efforts. “We have learnt all those lessons, and we think that a country cannot develop with war. You develop a country with peace,” Samwel Abilio Sianga, Angola’s ambassador to Kenya, told Nation.Africa. Angola’s 27-year civil war killed nearly 1 million people and displaced 4 million.…