ADF

ADF STAFF The attack on Lhubiriha Secondary School in Mpondwe, Uganda, began late at night on Friday, June 16, and spilled into the early morning hours. Among the 42 dead were 20 girls who were executed with machetes as they fled. Seventeen boys resisted and were locked in their dormitory. “This terrorist group couldn’t enter, so they threw in a bomb, they threw in a petrol bomb,” Uganda’s Education Minister and first lady Janet Museveni said in a statement. They were burned beyond recognition. Fighters from the Allied Democratic Forces, an Islamic State group affiliate, crossed the border from the…

ADF STAFF Several Malian Soldiers died when they were ambushed by terrorists linked to the Islamic State group (IS) in the northeast Ménaka region, near the Nigerien border, in early August. The Soldiers were in a convoy headed for Niger nine days after that country’s military coup. An elected official said Russian Wagner Group mercenaries also are deployed in the area. “According to an initial assessment, we lost six men,” a military official told Agence France-Presse (AFP). “We have today launched the search for others (missing), but the terrorists have lost at least 15 fighters.” Mali is a longtime battleground…

ADF STAFF While violent extremists plague its northern neighbors, Côte d’Ivoire has remained free of terrorist attacks for two years, thanks to a combination of military intervention, enhanced security and greater investment in areas along its borders. “The goal is to reverse perceptions among border communities that the state has abandoned them,” analyst William Assanvo wrote recently for the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). “Doing so will reduce the risk that they are exploited by insurgents.” Several Gulf of Guinea countries follow a pattern: The wealth and economic investment is concentrated along the coast while the north tends to be…

ADF STAFF Members of the Malian armed forces and Russian Wagner Group mercenaries reportedly are sowing terror and committing “grave human rights abuses.” The reports of atrocities come from multiple sources: a United Nations panel of experts, Tuareg former rebels in northern Mali, international advocacy organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) and the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED). In its report to the U.N. Security Council, the experts warned of “systematic” sexual violence by Malian troops as well as “presumed” elements of the Wagner group. “The panel believes that violence against women, and other forms of grave abuses…

ADF STAFF Effective communication is key to any successful operation, but it becomes exponentially more difficult when the operation involves multiple countries with a variety of technology and techniques. That fact underpinned the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) recent communications Exercise Dipuisano in Botswana. “Dipuisano” means “discussions” in Sesotho. As African nations work to respond to crises with regionally organized interventions, the ability to seamlessly communicate is more important than ever. Regional economic communities such as SADC are working to improve communications interoperability, Brig. Gen. Oreeditse Sheriff Tsamaase, acting director of financial resources management at the Botswana Defence Force, said…

ADF STAFF The coup in Niger is the latest in a sharp rise of military takeovers that have undercut decades of democratic progress on the continent. With juntas in charge from Guinea in the west to Sudan in the east, Africa now has what some are calling a “coup belt.” “Africa has suffered a serious setback,” Kenyan President William Ruto said in a July 28 video response to the events in Niger. African countries have experienced 98 coups between 1952 and 2022, according to a United Nations report on coups in Africa. The U.N. Development Programme (UNDP) report, titled “Soldiers…

ADF STAFF The June massacre of 46 displaced persons in the Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Ituri-based Lala camp has fueled resentment residents feel toward the United Nation’s decadeslong peacekeeping mission there. MONUSCO, the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, is the world’s largest peacekeeping mission. At $1 billion a year, it also is the most expensive peacekeeping mission. First deployed in 1999, the mission included 20,000 members at its peak. Today, it has more than 12,500 troops. Despite the mission’s size, duration and budget, experts and residents say it hasn’t brought peace to…

ADF STAFF More than 30 Kenyan security officers were killed by improvised explosive devices (IED) in more than 10 attacks over a three-week period in June. Officials suspect that al-Shabaab was behind the attacks in the northeastern Garissa and Lamu counties, both of which border Somalia. The group is the main terrorist threat in Kenya and often uses IEDs in its attacks. Several ambushes targeted Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) Soldiers, important infrastructure and a mine-resistant vehicle between June 7 and 12, according to the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). Between June 13 and June 25, attacks killed 20 KDF Soldiers,…

ADF STAFF Pressured by anti-militant campaigns in Nigeria, Boko Haram fighters have stepped up their attacks in Cameroon’s Far North region using improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The attacks target military vehicles, but also put civilians at risk. Since the beginning of the year, Boko Haram terrorists have launched attacks against dozens of communities in the Far North using IEDs and direct attacks. Militants have burned villages and looted residents’ homes. More than 4,000 people have fled. The Far North is part of the Lake Chad region, which has experienced a surge in terrorist violence in recent months. Much of that…

ADF STAFF The number of terrorist attacks in Africa rose from 330 in 2000 to 2,365 in 2018, according to the Global Terrorism Database. The sevenfold increase of attacks led to higher military spending in affected countries and their neighbors. Military spending on the continent rose from $10.6 billion in 2000 to $32.8 billion in 2018. Increasing terrorism also triggered some countries to increase their military spending to match a neighboring country’s expenditure. Those effects underscore the “urgent need” for collective action to address security threats on the continent. That is according to analysis by Amadou Boly, special assistant to the…