ADF

ADF STAFF When recent reports emerged of widespread, yearslong cyberattacks by Chinese hackers on Kenya’s government, China was quick to offer a boilerplate denial. But, experts say, in the digital environment, it is harder than ever for attackers to cover their tracks. Writing for Chatham House, Dr. James Shires, senior research fellow in the International Security Program, said strategies for covert action have evolved. “The digital age has created many new opportunities for covert action but has also made traditional strategies much harder to conceal,” he wrote. One is to “use distraction and disinformation, hiding embarrassing or sensitive facts in…

ADF STAFF Nigeria has a new president facing old problems. Insecurity has long been atop the list of concerns for Nigerians, who have lived under the specter of increasing violence from extremist groups, bandits, intercommunal fighting and other threats. As the situation has deteriorated, citizens have demanded a return to peace, safety and a more effective security sector. In a recent survey, Afrobarometer found that more than three-quarters of Nigerian respondents (77%) called the country “somewhat unsafe” or “very unsafe.” “People’s concern about crime and insecurity continues to rise, as a growing number rank it as the most important problem…

ADF STAFF Russian flags have become a fixture of rallies and public protests in Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic and Mali — an indication of the way Russia is pushing its propaganda and disinformation by filtering it through local influencers. One of those influencers, Kemi Seba, a French-Beninese social media figure with more than 1 million Facebook followers, was invited to speak at the Moscow Institute in Russia. During his presentation, he defended Moscow’s actions across the region, particularly those of the mercenaries of the Wagner Group, who have become Russia’s military proxies in many countries. Other pro-Moscow influencers…

ADF STAFF Pirates attacked a Danish-owned oil and chemical tanker known as the Monjasa Reformer in March about 140 nautical miles off the coast of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Authorities later found the ship off the coast of São Tomé and Príncipe, but six of its 16 crew members had been kidnapped. The attack underscored the reality that while piracy is down globally and in Africa, the threat has not been eliminated. Navies of West African countries and international navies, including the Danish, have recently increased patrols in the region, but the shipowners’ organization Danish Shipping has called…

ADF STAFF For months, the citizens of eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) have witnessed a major military buildup, cease-fires and negotiations — all aimed at ending the M23 rebels’ reign of terror. With precious little security in their daily lives, many wonder if the region is stuck in a permanent state of conflict. Researchers Judith Verweijen and Christoph Vogel examined the last three decades of violence and found it has been “increasingly driven by the legacy of previous unsolved problems.” “Peace deals, such as the 2013 deal with the M23, have generally remained on paper,” they wrote in…

ADF STAFF Hundreds of people, mostly unarmed civilians, were slaughtered in Moura, a village in the Mopti region of Mali in March 2022. According to a U.N. report released in May, Russia’s Wagner Group of mercenaries oversaw the massacre. “These are extremely disturbing findings,” Volker Türk, the U.N. high commissioner for human rights, told The Guardian. “Summary executions, rape and torture during armed conflict amount to war crimes and could, depending on the circumstances, amount to crimes against humanity.” The Wagner Group’s actions in Mali over the past year, coupled with France’s withdrawal of all troops from the country, is…

ADF STAFF Wearing heavy work boots and a hard hat, Nancy Sunday climbed into her MineWolf, an armored vehicle that tills land to crush or detonate buried mines and other explosives. The mines, some of which date back to the 1980’s, are deadly remnants of the country’s fight for independence and other battles. Over the years, multiple combatants have laid thousands of mines across roads and fields around the country. Sunday’s hazardous work for Norwegian People’s Aid (NPA) is important as more than 5,000 people have been killed or injured by mines and unexploded ordnance in South Sudan since 2004,…

ADF STAFF If the conflict in Sudan continues to escalate, experts say the fighting could spread over the porous Chadian border to the west. Mucahid Durmaz, senior analyst at risk intelligence firm Verisk Maplecroft, believes Chadian rebels involved in Sudan’s conflict could push the region toward further instability. “What happens in Sudan, will not stay in Sudan,” he told The Financial Times newspaper. “All of Sudan’s neighbors are struggling with political instability, civil wars and insurgencies. “The longer the fight drags on, the more likely it will spill over.” Fighting broke out in Sudan on April 15 between Gen. Abdel…

ADF STAFF New reporting details the extreme measures China will take to collect information about countries where it lends money. An investigation by Reuters, published on May 24, revealed that Chinese hackers engaged in a widespread, three-year campaign of cyberattacks on the Kenyan government regarding the debt it owed to China and many other issues. “A lot of documents from the ministry of foreign affairs were stolen and from the finance department as well,” a Kenyan cybersecurity expert told the news service. Two of the sources Reuters relied on in its investigation said the hacks show that China is willing…

ADF STAFF Thandi Modise recognized the irony of a Gripen jet roaring overhead as she delivered a speech to open the African Aerospace and Defence Expo in Tshwane, South Africa, last September. Grounded for a year because of budgetary constraints, the Gripen was symbolic of the challenges that affect South Africa’s defense industry and Modise’s staunch optimism that things are turning around. “It’s one of the things we have been quietly fixing,” she said in an impromptu moment. “For the skeptics who say nothing is working, a lot of things are beginning to work in the defense force. It’s not…