ADF

ADF STAFF Ethiopian businessman Tola Tesfaye was returning to Addis Ababa when armed men stopped his vehicle and kidnapped him for a ransom of 1.3 million birr ($23,000). Tesfaye’s experience is becoming routine across central Ethiopia’s Oromia State, driven by the Oromo Liberation Army (OLA). The rebel group has been fighting Ethiopia’s government since 2018, when it broke with its political wing, the Oromo Liberation Front (OLF), after the OLF made peace with the national government. Since 2018, the OLA’s ongoing conflict with the federal government has increased insecurity in the heart of the country. The OLA also has been…

ADF STAFF Hamza, a 26-year-old Moroccan, once had a steady job and fiancee. He occasionally used recreational drugs at parties with friends, but he was not an addict. Then he was encouraged to try pufa, also known as “cocaine for the poor.” The synthetic drug made from cocaine or crystal methamphetamine waste can be cut with battery acid, engine oil, shampoo, salt, baking soda and ammonia. Users usually smoke it, but sometimes they inject it. “[My friends] told me that I was wasting my money on soft drugs with an obsolete effect,” Hamza, a pseudonym, told Morocco’s L’Observateur du Maroc et…

ADF STAFF After losing ground for months, the Sudanese Armed Forces have launched new offensives against the opposition paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, reclaiming some territory in Omdurman, among other places. It is unclear how successful the new offensive will be. Observers have pointed out since the conflict began in April 2023 that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) are, in the words of analyst Michael Horton, “nimble, capable, and self-financing” because of the extensive gold smuggling operations of their leader, Gen. Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo. Before Hemedti split with Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) leader Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, the highly mobile…

ADF STAFF Mozambique’s armed forces (FADM) are taking a more prominent role in counterterrorism operations, as troops from the Southern African Development Community Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM) have begun to draw down. The insurgency in the northeastern province of Cabo Delgado continues to terrorize civilians and confound multinational security forces with its resilience. Rwandan and SAMIM forces have “significantly downgraded” Ansar al-Sunna, a violent extremist group also known as Islamic State Mozambique (ISM). After more than two years of fighting, the terrorist group is down to “160 to 200 battle-hardened fighters,” according to a United Nations monitoring team report published…

ADF STAFF Some have called it West Africa’s “Brexit.” Others referred to Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger as “the three rebels” after their decision to leave the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Whatever it’s called, the defections reverse decades of economic integration and spell trouble for regional security and civilian governance, threatening to further destabilize the restive Sahel and West African regions. “If they decide to go ahead and leave, it will become a very big problem, economically and politically,” Seidik Abba, president of the CIRES think tank, told Reuters. “The stakes are the highest for the people…

ADF STAFF Russia’s extensive courtship of Burkina Faso in recent months has included 25,000 metric tons of free wheat, an agreement to build a nuclear power plant, a personal security detail for junta leader Capt. Ibrahim Traoré and now 100 paramilitary fighters. But experts warn that the former Wagner Group mercenary outfit, now known as the Africa Corps, has a history of indiscriminately killing civilians and plundering natural resources from its host countries. “[The Russians are] pursuing and defending their own national interests,” Rwanda-based political analyst Louis Gitinywa told Anadolu Agency. “It doesn’t matter what they are putting on the…

ADF STAFF The use of drones by Burkina Faso’s military is drawing criticism and calls for restraint amid reports of heavy civilian casualties. Burkinabe military drone strikes killed more than 60 civilians and injured scores more over a four-month stretch in late 2023, Human Rights Watch (HRW) reported. The military junta led by Capt. Ibrahim Traoré reported that the drone strikes targeted terrorists. The civilians reportedly were killed during three attacks starting in early August, when members of the Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) violent extremist organization rode motorcycles into a market in the southwestern village of Bouro. When the…

ADF STAFF The images of a wrecked unmanned aerial vehicle that Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) posted to its social media channels in late January confirmed what many observers have suspected: Iran is supplying weaponized drones to the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). Through images posted online by the RSF, experts were able to identify the vehicle as an Iranian-made Mohajer-6 combat drone. The RSF said on X, formerly Twitter, that it had shot down three such drones recently. The Mohajer-6 can carry up to four air-to-surface missiles along with surveillance equipment. It has a maximum speed of 200 kilometers per…

ADF STAFF Eleven West African countries are designated as future fisheries conflict hot spots. These places could see clashes over marine resources in the next six years due to fish stocks depleted by illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. According to a World Wildlife Fund (WWF) report, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Nigeria, the Republic of the Congo, Senegal, and São Tomé and Príncipe are highly likely to experience future conflict between foreign industrial trawlers, artisanal fishermen and local fishing communities. Other such designated areas on the continent are Mozambique and…

ADF STAFF Three military-led countries — Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger — dealt a blow to the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) when they announced that they will leave the regional bloc. It was one of several blows that have weakened regional bodies around the continent, as the organizations have struggled to deal with complex security and economic challenges. The three junta-led countries quit ECOWAS on January 28 after the bloc had suspended and sanctioned them in an attempt to pressure the military rulers to return power to democratically elected leaders. In a statement the next day, the…