ADF

ADF STAFF The Wagner Group may have a new name for its operations in Africa, but it’s the same Russian mercenary outfit that has pillaged mineral wealth and left a trail of atrocities across the continent. The future of the shadowy group was thrown into disarray after the August 2023 death of former leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, who was a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin before Prigozhin led Wagner’s aborted revolt against the Russian military in June 2023. Wagner’s rebranding with the name Africa Corps shows the group is in the midst of restructuring under Putin and Russian Deputy…

ADF STAFF The spread of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) across Africa has many security experts concerned that it is only a matter of time before terrorists begin using armed drones to attack military and civilian targets. “The massive use of remotely controlled vehicles made possible by the accessibility of the technology and the ridiculous costs of its implementation is becoming a real threat for any air force, however modern it may be,” Brig. Gen. Papa Souleymane Sarr, chief of staff of the Senegalese Air Force, told Agence de Presse Senegalese during a gathering of African Air Force chiefs last October…

ADF STAFF The Liberian-flagged Zim Europe was the first cargo ship to divert its course. Bound for Malaysia, the ZIM company ship changed course far into the Mediterranean Sea before turning, retracing its path back through the Gibraltar Strait and into the Atlantic, heading for South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope. With backing from Iran, Houthi militants in Yemen have terrorized the southern Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden since late November 2023. They have launched a series of missile and drone attacks and raids against cargo ships and other vessels.As a result, an increasing number of ships are…

ADF STAFF Armed groups in Niger have increasingly targeted schools to try to recruit new members and destabilize the country. In 2023, more than 920 schools in the Tillabéri region alone were closed due to security concerns. In the southwestern department of Abala, officials closed 41 schools, 31 for security reasons and 10 due to a lack of teachers, according to Boubacar Oumarou, Abala’s prefect. “When teachers leave, the schools inevitably close,” Oumarou told Global Voices. “This doesn’t bode well for us since we have thousands of students. Around 3,000 are currently hanging around.” The affected schools were mostly in…

ADF STAFF Almost 600 former Boko Haram fighters swore an oath to Nigeria and apologized for their past actions during a ceremony in northern Gombe State. The voluntary defectors were participating in a March 2023 graduation ceremony at a de-radicalization, rehabilitation and reintegration (DRR) camp after completing a six-month program known as Operation Safe Corridor. The program is advertised on radio broadcasts, and leaflets about it are dropped from the sky in areas where Boko Haram operates. Besides persuading insurgents to lay down their weapons, DDR programs typically support former fighters and their families, often reintegrating them into society. “Based…

ADF STAFF Throughout 2023, the South African criminal group known as the West Gang terrorized the town of Inanda, just north of Durban. The group allegedly is responsible for a spate of robberies and more than 50 murders, including the killing of a police officer, neighborhood watch patrollers and a community policing forum member. A resident told Eyewitness News about an attack involving the gang, which she said was composed of teenagers. “Earlier in October, some boys came here,” she said. “The first house they entered was a small tuck shop that sold food. The owner of the shop was home…

ADF STAFF Mariam sat in a debriefing session with a Congolese military intelligence official and described how a Ugandan rebel had claimed her as his wife and taken her to a camp in the forest. She felt safe enough in the military base in the town of Beni in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), near the border with Uganda, to talk about what it was like to live among extremist rebels for two years. The 22-year-old, who withheld her last name for her safety, lived with one of the deadliest of the 120-plus armed groups that operate…

ADF STAFF Plans to hold a national election in Libya have sputtered for years. Abdulaye Bathily, the United Nations envoy to Libya, in late November urged the country’s rival factions to select representatives for a meeting aimed at reaching an election settlement. It was the latest plea to bring together the Libyan National Army, led by Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, and Prime Minister Abdulhamid al-Dbeibeh’s U.N.-backed Government of National Unity, based in Tripoli. There has been little progress in bringing the factions together since a 2020 cease-fire was reached. As election efforts falter, some analysts are focusing on programs that would…

ADF STAFF Chinese private security companies (PSC) are a growing presence in Africa, where they often are tasked with protecting major infrastructure projects connected to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. China claims about 10% of the global private security industry. The six to eight Chinese PSCs working in Africa concentrate their efforts largely in countries where China has substantial infrastructure investments, such as Kenya. Despite their description as private, all Chinese PSCs are state controlled and populated by former members of the People’s Liberation Army — an extension of the Chinese Communist Party’s principle that “the party controls the gun.”…

ADF STAFF Uganda claimed a significant victory over the Islamic State group (IS) in November when it captured a senior commander known as “Njovu” during a raid in which six members of his group were killed. The fighters belonged to the Allied Democratic Forces, which is based in neighboring Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The group has increasingly attacked western Uganda, where the group originated. “This was a successful joint military-intelligence-led operation, and the whole squad that had been sent by the [Allied Democratic Forces] to cause mayhem, kill tourists, burn schools, hospitals, was eliminated,” Ugandan military spokesman Deo…