ADF

ADF STAFF In northern Nigeria and northern Mozambique, two violent extremist groups are separated by thousands of kilometers but connected by certain characteristics. Both emerged in regions where state security was largely absent and local grievances against the government had grown. Both insurgencies preached the rejection of traditional education in favor of a radical form of Islam. Both movements are funded through the illicit economy. And, in both places, an initial heavy-handed response by the military did not stop attacks and might have helped extremist recruitment. In Mozambique, Ansar al-Sunna (ASWJ) has been linked to attacks on civilians and security…

ADF STAFF Five days after leading a failed uprising against the Russian state, Yevgeny Prigozhin and his top Wagner Group officers sat face-to-face with Russian President Vladimir Putin for a three-hour meeting on June 29. Despite having called his former close advisor a traitor and vowing harsh punishment, Putin reportedly gave immunity to Wagner personnel. He also agreed to let Prigozhin keep some of his vast, shadowy empire in Africa. Rama Yade, senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Africa Center, is one of many observers still trying to make sense of the mutiny and its fallout. “Undoubtedly this rebellion will…

U.S. Africa Command Staff Although most of Africa remains safe, pockets of extremist violence have festered and are spreading. Global terrorist organizations seek to exploit these security weak spots after losing ground in other parts of the world. These groups see parts of the Sahel, the Horn of Africa and northern Mozambique as places where they are free to recruit, expand and launch attacks.  A 2023 United Nations report called Sub-Saharan Africa the world’s “epicenter” for terrorism. Nearly half of all global terrorism-related deaths in 2021 occurred in Sub-Saharan Africa. The most affected were Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Somalia,…

Vice Adm. Seth Amoama, chief of the Defence Staff of the Ghana Armed Forces, spoke on “Ghana’s Military Efforts in Curbing Terrorism” at the first International Defence Exhibition and Conference on October 12, 2022, at Burma Camp in Accra, Ghana. His remarks are taken from an account published by the Ghana Peace Journal and have been edited for space and clarity. Ghana in the past few years has deployed a multisectoral all-of-government-and-society approach to contain any possible spillover of terrorism and violent extremism. The Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) in response has also devised a well-thought-out military strategy and implementation plan…

ADF STAFF As food insecurity continued to plague Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, South Sudan and Sudan, the Intergovernmental Authority on Development (IGAD) inaugurated a regional group to address the issue. The Learning Network on Nutrition Surveillance (LeNNS), with the support of the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), first met on November 23, 2022, in Nairobi, Kenya, to work toward “effective policies, advocacy and action planning around nutrition in the region,” according to IGAD.  Dr. Patrick Amoth, director-general of Kenya’s Ministry of Health, said LeNNS will help generate timely information and evidence so it can be used to inform effective…

ADF STAFF China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) promised huge investments in ports throughout the world. But the environmental and human costs of these projects are only beginning to be understood, according to reports. Chinese-built ports in Angola, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, Djibouti, Mauritania and Mozambique have become examples of how such projects can disrupt aquatic ecosystems and local artisanal fishing communities, according to a report led by Boston University’s Global Development Policy Center. Countries on Africa’s Atlantic coast — particularly Angola, Cameroon and Côte d’Ivoire — face the greatest risk to their local fishing communities from port projects. Cameroon’s artisanal…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Côte d’Ivoire, which has lost nearly all its forests in the past half century, has launched a major project to triple its cover by 2030, the government announced in November 2022. The Forests Investment Project aims to cover 6.5 million hectares — about 20% of the country — said the World Bank, which is financing the $149 million project. The project also would help preserve 300,000 hectares of degraded forest land in the southwest, and forests in the northern Savanes zone, said Water and Forests Minister Laurent Tchagba. The seven-year project will benefit the country’s four national parks,…

Maj. Gen. Ibrahim of the Nigerian Army has a military career that spans more than 35 years. He holds a master’s degree in strategic studies from the University of Ibadan and has participated in international peace support operations in Liberia and Sudan. Domestically, he has led troops in operations in the Bakassi Peninsula, the Niger Delta and Kaduna. During his career he received honors including the Distinguished Service Star, Field Command Medal of Honour and Operation Lafiya Dole medal. In August 2021, he was named force commander of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), a five-nation regional effort mandated to…

ADF STAFF In the vast agricultural Middle Belt of central Nigeria, Emmanuel Ogbudu has witnessed the power of local interventions. Ogbudu, a monitoring and evaluation manager for the humanitarian group Mercy Corps, has spent more than 10 years as a peace practitioner. He likes to tell the story of a farmer in Bokkos, Plateau State, who called the police to arrest a herder whose cattle destroyed some of his crops. Begging the farmer to withdraw the case so they could resolve it at home, the pastoralist contacted his local leader who had been trained by Mercy Corps in negotiation techniques.…

ADF STAFF Amina Fofana is a member of one of Mali’s pro-junta protest groups and serves on the military government’s National Transitional Council, the nation’s legislative body. She’s prolific on social media. Her Facebook page shows about 5,000 friends and is home to a torrent of posts that appear several times a day. She also is a staunch supporter of Russian influence in Mali and spreads its deceptive propaganda and disinformation. On December 9, 2021, she posted a 3-minute, 27-second video that showed a white helicopter land in an open field as at least four young men waited. A voice…