ADF

ADF STAFF More than one year after a peace deal was signed to end the war in Ethiopia’s Tigray region, the regional capital of Mekelle once again is bustling. Schoolchildren hurry through the streets, three-wheeled taxis jostle for position and Edaga-Seni, the city’s outdoor market, is full of vendors hawking their wares. But observers say life in the wider region is far from normal. “The guns have been largely silenced, we have seen improvements in access to services like banking and electricity, some schools have also reopened, but 90% of Tigray is dependent on aid,” Yared Berhe Gebrelibanos, who heads…

ADF STAFF It only took a matter of days for the Somali terror group al-Shabaab to congratulate Hamas for its deadly October 7 attack on Israel. Al-Shabaab, a branch of al-Qaida, gathered hundreds of supporters on October 15 for pro-Hamas protests in its southern Somalia strongholds, Jilib and Kunya Barrow. Men burned Israel’s flag, and several Shabaab-affiliated clan officials spoke in front of a banner that read: “We are One Ummah [worldwide Islamic community].” Experts say al-Shabaab is using its assets on the ground, on radio and in social media to connect itself to Gaza to co-opt attention, expand and…

ADF STAFF Lack of civilian oversight of a country’s security sector can have dire consequences that lead to public mistrust of security forces, a continentwide challenge. Afrobaromoter reported that more than 50% of survey respondents in Côte d’Ivoire, Eswatini, Gabon, Nigeria and Togo expressed little or no trust in their country’s military. More than 40% of respondents in nine other countries held the same opinions. Civilian oversight includes the role of parliaments and parliamentary committees in overseeing the governance, transparency, accountability and effectiveness of a nation’s security sector. Sean Tait, director of the African Policing Civilian Oversight Forum, described civilian oversight…

ADF STAFF Persistent drought that led to a massive loss of farmland has fueled tensions between militias in Mali’s Dogon country since 2015. Dogon refers to parts of the central Mopti region as well as an ethnic group of indigenous people who frequently clash with the Fulani ethnic group. Lack of rainfall means farmers need more land to make ends meet, and they are sometimes forced to pay money to protect the land they work. The land is often taken if farmers don’t pay for protection. “This is a conflict of two sides: you have the religious jihadists and the…

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…