ADF

CLUES The Almoravids founded this city in 1061 A.D. as a military settlement. It mostly is associated with Sultan Moulay Ismail, who reigned from 1672 to 1727 and transformed it into a spectacular capital with 45 kilometers of exterior walls. Its urban design integrates Islamic and European architecture and town planning. Behind the city’s high defensive walls are 25 mosques, 10 public baths, palaces, granaries, vestiges of merchant inns and private houses. ANSWER  The historic city of Meknes, Morocco 

ADF STAFF Aynalem was on a bus traveling from Ethiopia’s Amhara region to Addis Ababa in late August when the vehicle was ambushed by militants from the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA), which claims to fight for the self-determination of the ethnic Oromo group. A 21-year-old biomedical engineering student, Aynalem said the attackers were young and carried assault rifles. They boarded the bus and ordered it to drive for hours. When it stopped, Aynalem was forced to call her parents, as her abductors demanded a 500,000-birr (about $4,400) ransom. Several excruciating days passed. “They made us sleep on the grass, we…

ADF STAFF A string of clashes in Ethiopia’s Amhara region between government forces and an ethnic militia are sparking fears of a widening war. In September, fighting in the towns of Debark and Dabat in North Gondar left at least nine dead and 30 injured. During the same month, the ethnic Amhara militia known as the Fano briefly captured Gondar, a culturally important city that dates to the medieval era. Both sides appear to be digging in for a prolonged conflict. Speaking to a cheering crowd in Shewa, Gen. Tefera Mamo, a former Ethiopian military leader who joined the Fano…

ADF STAFF Iran is working to take advantage of the chaos caused by Sudan’s civil war to gain a foothold on the Red Sea. Establishing a presence in Sudan would, in essence, enable Iran to box in its regional opponents, including Saudi Arabia and Israel, and threaten shipping through the Suez Canal, according to experts. “It [Iran] considers it a starting point towards achieving long term strategic gains, in terms of expansion in Africa, control of the Red Sea and wider regional influence,” analyst Abdal Monim Himmat wrote recently for The Arab Weekly. Toward that end, Iran has spent more…

ADF STAFF On a continent where extremist violence has increased 60% since 2021, little outside attention has been paid to the historically peaceful country of Malawi. But the dangers posed by terrorist groups seeking to expand into Malawi are real, according to independent Africa security analyst Scott Morgan. “The proper assessment should be that the threat to Malawi is an external threat rather than an internal threat,” he wrote in a September 19 brief on the website Militant Wire. “The porosity of borders, the geography, and a limitation of capabilities coupled with scant foreign support makes Malawi a highly vulnerable…

ADF STAFF Disinformation campaigns seeking to manipulate African information systems have increased nearly fourfold since 2022. That is according to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS), which linked disinformation campaigns to increased violence, support for coups, expanded anti-Western rhetoric and the spread of confusion about health care. These campaigns also work to erode confidence in traditional media sources. Nearly 60% of disinformation campaigns in Africa are linked to countries outside the continent. The efforts, aided by emerging technology, are mostly driven by Russia, although China, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates also push false narratives as they seek…

ADF STAFF For more than a decade, improvised explosive devices have been the deadliest weapons terrorists in Somalia have deployed against both Soldiers and civilians. Since 2014, IEDs planted by al-Shabaab have killed or injured more than 14,000 people, 61% of them civilians, according to Action on Armed Violence. Based in the United Kingdom, the group tracks armed violence against civilians around the world. Over the last year alone, IEDs have killed or injured 1,500 Somalis, most of them civilians. Al-Shabaab bombed a café in Mogadishu in July and a tea shop in central Somalia in August. On September 27,…

ADF STAFF The fifth filling of the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam has raised more than the level of the hydropower dam’s sprawling reservoir: It has also raised tensions between Ethiopia and Egypt over control of the Nile River. The most recent filling, which began in July, provoked an outcry from Egyptian officials, who insist that the dam is illegal and poses an existential threat to their country. Egypt gets more than 90% of its freshwater from the Nile. Egyptian authorities say colonial-era treaties from 1929 and 1959 guarantee Egypt and Sudan a specific allotment of Nile river water. They see…

ADF STAFF The number of violent events involving extremist groups in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger has nearly doubled since 2021. That is according to a Reuters review of data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data crisis monitoring group, which recorded 224 violent events a month on average since January, up from 128 in 2021. The Institute for Economics and Peace reported that Burkina Faso topped its Global Terrorism Index for the first time this year, with fatalities rising 68% to 1,907 — a quarter of all terrorism-linked deaths worldwide. The military junta in Burkina Faso — and…

ADF STAFF In an effort to recruit new fighters the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) is invoking Faza’a, an ancient, pre-Islamic Sudanese tradition. Faza’a allows tribes to call on their members and allies for support against attacks by other tribes or to take revenge for killings. The RSF has exploited Faza’a to recruit teenagers and children to fight on the front lines much as it did 20 years ago in Darfur when it was known as the Janjaweed. Experts say such recruitment can have life-changing consequences for the young victims. “There are psychological and social ramifications on child recruits,” Dr.…