ADF

ADF STAFF With cocaine trafficking at its highest recorded level, West Africa is battling both crime and addiction. The region has historically been a transit region for cocaine as it made its way from South America to Europe, but that role also likely contributed to the development of local markets, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The trend has been unfolding for years. Pierre Lapaque, the UNODC’s regional representative, said he believes drug lords deliberately dump cocaine and other drugs in the region so that local dealers can charge prices low enough to attract new…

ADF STAFF Soldiers with the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) in early May killed several terrorists and recovered a cache of weapons during an operation near Lake Chad in northeast Nigeria. The operation was launched a week after members of Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) attacked the task force’s troops in a nearby village, the MNJTF said in a statement. On May 14, ISWAP claimed responsibility for a deadly attack on MNJTF forces that also was near Lake Chad in northeast Nigeria. That attack killed three MNJTF Soldiers, and an unknown number of terrorists was…

ADF STAFF As violence has escalated in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), an array of African forces entered the country with promises of restoring peace. The latest addition, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), agreed on May 8 to deploy a regional force. Among the numerous unknowns is how the force would coexist with the fully deployed East African Community regional force (EACRF). Experts such as Congolese political analyst José Nawej say too many military operations could cause command structure headaches. “It’s going to be a Tower of Babel,” he told Kenya-based newspaper, The East African. DRC President…

ADF STAFF With the handover of command of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), leaders hope to continue the momentum against the extremist group Boko Haram. But observers warn that other groups in the region might prove harder to defeat. Outgoing commander Maj. Gen. Abdul Khalifah Ibrahim of Nigeria presented the flag of the MNJTF to his successor, Maj. Gen. Gold Chibuisi of Nigeria, during a brief ceremony on April 19 at MNJTF headquarters in N’Djamena, Chad. Ibrahim declared that the Lake Chad Basin is in better shape than when he took command in August 2021. “Attacks have dropped by…

ADF STAFF With fighting between Sudan’s rival generals showing no signs of abating, experts are paying close attention to the possibility of the conflict spilling over into the Central African Republic (CAR) and Chad. Sudan’s neighbors to the north and east also face spillover, but its western neighbors share unique ethnic ties, historical bonds, and the presence of rebels and Wagner Group mercenaries that could escalate into a regional conflict. In addition, the CAR and Chad share a border with Sudan’s volatile Darfur region, where fighting has erupted in the past. Thousands of Sudanese already have fled to the CAR…

ADF STAFF Despite promises of security, new data shows that when Wagner Group mercenaries enter a country violence comes with them. Civilian deaths are rising in the Central African Republic (CAR) where the group has operated since 2018, and Mali, where it has operated since late 2021. In the CAR, 40% of all events categorized as “political violence” between December 2020 and July 2022 involved the Wagner Group, according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED). Since December 2020, the group has been involved in 180 events targeting civilians, while being implicated in forced disappearances, rapes and extrajudicial killings.…

ADF STAFF While Sudan’s conflict between rival military leaders is being fought largely in the streets of Khartoum, experts say the fighting could shift to the Darfur region should the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) drive the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) out of the capital. For two decades, Sudan’s Darfur region has been the nexus for much of the country’s internal conflict, beginning with attacks by Janjaweed militias in 2003. The region is already experiencing spillover from fighting in Khartoum, with local RSF members and civilian residents arming themselves for battle. More than 1,000 Darfuri residents have died since fighting erupted…

Brig. Gen. Daniel Kuwali served in the directorate of legal services for the Malawi Defence Force (MDF) for 23 years. During that time, he became chief of legal services and then was appointed the first judge advocate general of the MDF. He also has served as legal advisor in the United Nations mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and has taught and published widely on topics including human rights, the use of force and humanitarian law. In 2022, he graduated from the resident course as an international fellow at the U.S. Army War College and returned to Malawi,…

After two decades during which coups d’état were relatively rare, they are making an unwelcome return. In 2021, there were six coups or attempted coups documented on the continent. The next year saw two coups in Burkina Faso and several others attempted. Citizens fear a return to an era in which power was taken at the point of a gun instead of earned at the ballot box.  Each coup has its own story, but certain patterns have emerged. Insecurity causes fear and anger to spread among the public. Democratic institutions fail or an autocratic leader clings to power. Discipline and…

Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo is president of Ghana and chairman of the Economic Community of West African States Authority of Heads of State and Government. He spoke in Accra, Ghana, on March 15, 2022, at an event organized by the African Union Department of Political Affairs, Peace and Security. His remarks have been edited for space and clarity. Our unity and resolve should send a clear message to coup plotters that coups have never been, and will never be, durable solutions to Africa’s political, economic and security challenges. Statements condemning coups alone without corresponding action will, however, achieve little or…