ADF

ADF STAFF As the world tries to understand what led to the coup in Niger, one factor continues to face scrutiny: ethnicity. Throughout the continent’s history, coups have been closely linked to ethnic grievances. This is particularly true when the military is packed with one ethnic group and does not reflect the population it serves. What emerges is a belief that access to power and career advancement is tied to ethnicity. “We can link a large number of coups to ethnicity,” Dr. Olayinka Ajala, lecturer in politics and international relations at Leeds Beckett University, told ADF. “Ethnicity has always been…

ADF STAFF In little more than two years, Niger has exemplified the power of presidential security forces — and what can happen when that power is unchecked. In March 2021, Niger’s presidential guard quelled an attempted coup by elements of the military two days before the inauguration of President-elect Mohamed Bazoum. In July 2023, the presidential guard led a coup that deposed Bazoum. The mutiny within the president’s innermost circle was led by the same man who protected the presidential residence in 2021 — Gen. Abdourahamane Tchiani, head of the presidential guard since 2011. On July 26, 2023, Tchiani detained…

ADF STAFF There was no surprise when military junta leaders in Niger reached out to Russia’s mercenary Wagner Group for help just days after overthrowing a democratically elected government and suspending the country’s constitution. Experts say Russia’s presence in Africa is focused on promoting autocracy and instability. Niger is simply the latest example. “War is a business, and it’s a business Russia has managed to do very well in,” said Marisa Lourenço, a South Africa-based independent political and economic risk analyst, during an August 14 panel discussion called The Resistance Bureau. “This is effectively what drives Russia. Africa keeps it…

ADF STAFF As Niger’s military junta has held the deposed president in isolation, the country has become increasingly isolated by the international community — one of the many consequences of unconstitutionally seizing power. Nigerien President Mohamad Bazoum has said he is being held “hostage” and “deprived of all human contact” with no electricity and only dry rice and pasta to eat. “I am just one of hundreds of citizens who have been arbitrarily and illegally imprisoned,” he wrote in an opinion piece published by The Washington Post on August 3. “This coup … has no justification whatsoever. “If it succeeds,…

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…