ADF

ADF STAFF Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi’s three-country tour of Africa in mid-July marked the first time the controversial country’s president has visited the continent in more than 11 years. Raisi’s government has made a point of seeking closer ties with Africa and has increased trade. But Iran’s connection to extremism, arms and drug smuggling on the continent undercut those relationships. “Sanctions have been hurting Iran for a long time, but the Raisi administration’s top priority is to defeat the sanctions,” Tehran-based researcher Ali Akbar Dareini of Al Jazeera’s Center for Strategic Studies said during an Al Jazeera panel discussion on…

ADF STAFF The tapering sides and glass façade of Khartoum’s Greater Nile Petroleum Company evoke a jet flame of gas burning in Sudan’s oil fields. Its location at the confluence of the White and Blue Nile made the tower an eye-catching landmark and a symbol of the country. “Since its construction, there was hardly a photo, painting or a graphic design piece about Khartoum that did not include this building in its skyline,” architect Arwa Ahmed told The Conversation in a recent interview. The tower and the larger Al Sunut project it belonged to presented “a vision for new hope…

ADF STAFF John Momo is a 27-year-old seventh-grade dropout struggling with drug addiction in the notorious Zimbabwe ghetto in Paynesville, Liberia, where he has lived for nine years. Hundreds of young people — men and women, boys and girls — come and go from one broken building to another. Trash is strewn about the dusty dirt floors, the smell of marijuana thick in the air. Living in squalor, the young people say they have little to do. “Life here is bad,” Momo told Liberian newspaper Front Page Africa. “We are here smoking drugs. Nobody is coming to help us. We…

ADF STAFF Kenyan President William Ruto has asked China for another $1 billion in loans to finish stalled projects even as he faces a moment of reckoning with billions in earlier Chinese loans coming due next year. Kenya currently owes China $6.3 billion, most of it for the construction of the $5.5 billion Standard Gauge Railway (SGR) running from Mombasa to the Rift Valley. The railway was supposed to pay for itself by hauling freight between the coast and landlocked countries such as Uganda. The Chinese-directed feasibility study that underpinned the project claimed the railway would be profitable by moving…

ADF STAFF As part of the fight against drug trafficking, piracy, and illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the Gulf of Guinea, 19 West African countries joined for Grand African Navy Exercise for Maritime Operations (NEMO) 2023, an annual maritime security event led by the French Navy. The Nigerian Navy helped the French Navy coordinate the exercise that included 27 nations, including 18 on the Gulf of Guinea. The six-day event included 34 vessels and seven aircraft that participated in 60 sea and air scenarios. “It’s an initiative that brings together nations from across the region and beyond, to…

ADF STAFF The vicious cycle of conflict and hunger continues in some of Africa’s war-torn regions. Nowhere was it worse in 2023 than in Burkina Faso, Mali, Somalia and South Sudan. They are the only countries in the world designated as Phase 5, described as catastrophe/famine — the most severe level in the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification (IPC) system. Speaking to the United Nations Security Council, U.N. Famine Prevention and Response Coordinator Reena Ghelani emphasized that conflict and insecurity remain key drivers of hunger and famine. “It is a man-made crisis that has been swelling for years,” she said…

ADF STAFF The African Union’s decision to deploy troops to Somalia in 2007 came after the country had endured 16 years of anarchy and other international missions had failed to restore order. In the 16 years since the AU intervened, Somalia has reestablished a government and driven terrorists from many parts of the country. The African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), previously known as AMISOM, is one of dozens of African-led peacekeeping missions deployed across the continent over nearly a quarter century. Missions driven by the AU or the continent’s regional economic communities, such as the Economic Community of…

ADF STAFF The changing face of peacekeeping in Africa is on display in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where a seemingly intractable conflict continues to rage in the eastern provinces. The United Nations stabilization mission in the DRC, known as MONUSCO, is one of the U.N.’s largest, most expensive and longest-running missions. After years of frustration, the government requested that MONUSCO expedite its complete withdrawal this year instead of by the end of 2024. With well-founded fears of a security vacuum, the DRC in 2022 called for the deployment of a multilateral force made up of troops from…

ADF STAFF International observers showered Liberia with praise after the West African nation with a grim history of conflict conducted largely peaceful presidential and parliamentary elections on October 10. “Liberians were able to freely exercise their constitutional rights,” head of the African Union observer mission Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said in a statement. “In spite of the heightened political atmosphere, the political environment was generally peaceful with minimal violence during the campaign period.” The calm, orderly affair stood in stark contrast to parts of West Africa and the Sahel where coups have occurred in recent years. More than 250,000 Liberians died in…

ADF STAFF Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s call for direct port access on the Red Sea has Horn of Africa observers concerned about a new conflict in the battle-scarred region. Ethiopia lost direct access to the sea in 1993 when Eritrea gained independence after almost 30 years of war. Direct access to the coast would allow Ethiopia to develop its economy, strengthen its Navy and exert regional influence. “What I wanted to talk to you about today is regarding water; regarding the Red Sea water,” Abiy said in a speech to party officials in mid-October. “We can see that only…