ADF

ADF STAFF A dramatic rise in attacks by al-Shabaab extremists has scuttled plans to reopen the border between Somalia and Kenya, which closed in 2011. Kenya’s Interior Cabinet Minister Kithure Kindiki made several visits to the region in June and vowed to defeat the al-Qaida-affiliated group. “There is no turning back on this issue, but since we have witnessed increased attacks from the terrorists, we will delay the reopening for a short period to enable us to deal with the militants first,” he told local reporters, according to The Africa Report magazine. After the shutdown of multiple border entry points,…

ADF STAFF Ellen Pakkies’ son, Abie, started to change when he turned 13. He became violent and unpredictable: He was addicted to methamphetamine, known in South Africa as tik. Pakkies, who lives in Cape Town’s Lavender Hill community, ultimately killed her son in 2007 to escape the torture of living with his emotional outbursts, violent attacks, and demands for money to feed his addiction. Pakkies’ story shocked a nation — particularly the Western Cape region — that has become a hot spot for tik abuse and trafficking. In the highly publicized case, Pakkies received a suspended sentence and brought scrutiny…

ADF STAFF The Wagner Group has spread like a virus and infected the government, military and economic sectors of the Central African Republic (CAR) to the extent that experts say the country is now a laboratory of Russian influence. The mercenaries have made capturing the country’s diamond market a priority, stealing and smuggling the precious gems while killing anyone who gets in their way. One diamond dealer in CAR’s capital, Bangui, said Wagner fighters working jointly with the Central African Armed Forces (FACA) have focused on mining areas, where operations have increased since 2021. “There was a phase of intimidation,…

ADF STAFF Tanzanians Abdirahman Shaffi Mkwatili and Sadam Jafari Kitia were lost in northern Kenya, hundreds of kilometers off course when security agents arrested them on July 12. They had nearly reached the country’s border, but it was the wrong one. They were in the city of Moyale, which straddles Kenya’s border with Ethiopia. Their goal was to cross into Somalia and continue trekking to Jilib, a city well known as the headquarters of al-Shabaab. They were to be the newest additions, part of the terror group’s efforts to recruit beyond Somalia and Kenya. “They lost their direction to Somalia,”…

ADF STAFF Kenyan security forces have increased their operations along the country’s 680-kilometer border with Somalia in response to recent attacks by al-Shabaab. Al-Shabaab, which has suffered repeated defeats by the Somali National Army (SNA), has launched attacks against targets in Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda in retribution for those countries participating in ATMIS, the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia. A string of al-Shabaab attacks against Kenya Defence Forces outposts in Garissa, Lamu and Mandera North counties forced the government to reverse its plans to reopen border crossings with Somalia. During one recent attack against a military outpost in Sirari,…

ADF STAFF The Wagner Group’s recent rebellion against the Russian military is certain to spur changes to the mercenary organization that will affect its operations in Africa. But whatever entity ends up controlling Wagner — or even if the mercenary group simply gets a new brand name and logo — it will not change the tactics Russia has used for years to spread influence and harvest resources in African countries. Using the Wagner Group as its proxy, Russia has been “testing and perfecting a nightmarish blueprint for state capture” in the Central African Republic (CAR), according to a new report…

ADF STAFF Less than four months after fighting erupted between Sudan’s two dominant generals, the country appears to be close to descending into a full-scale civil war, according to security experts. “They’re trying to not just win but trying to eradicate the other in order to have complete control over the country and its resources,” analyst Kholood Khair, founding director of Confluence Advisory, a Khartoum think tank, recently told Al-Jazeera. The violence began April 15 when the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by a general known as Hemedti attacked key installations in the capital city, including the military compound where…

ADF STAFF Fourteen years into its fight against violent extremist organizations (VEOs) in the Lake Chad Basin, Nigeria is finding success from above, forcing militants to scatter and change tactics. Zagazola Makama, a counterinsurgency expert and security analyst in the Lake Chad region, often is asked how the Nigerian military has managed to push back against VEOs in the country’s restive northeast. “My answer always is that the airpower is the game changer,” he told ADF. “The dominant feature of Nigeria’s counterinsurgency theater is the effective synergy and collaboration between the surface and air assets, which has ensured the steady…

ADF STAFF Sudan’s warring generals have shifted the focus of their fighting from the heart of the capital, Khartoum, to Omdurman across the Nile River, as the army tries to break the supply lines of its rivals in the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, Sudan’s de facto leader, launched air strikes and used the army’s heavy artillery to attack RSF positions in the city. RSF fighters, led by the opposing general known as Hemedti, have taken over civilian homes since fighting began on April 15. In Omdurman, RSF fighters have engaged…

ADF STAFF It was about 10 p.m., and children were singing gospel songs at the Mpondwe Lhubiriha Secondary School, near Uganda’s border with the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). In an instant, Mary Masika said the singing became wails of anguish and terror. As gunfire erupted, she heard a person ordered to throw a bomb into a school dormitory. “Then I heard a student crying and another one saying, ‘Jesus, help me, they’re killing me,’” Masika told the BBC. The mid-June attack committed by the Allied Democratic Forces killed 42 people, including 37 students, who were hacked with machetes,…