ADF

ADF STAFF The Egyptian Navy in late March received three Cyclone-class patrol boats from the United States government. The vessels previously named the USS Hurricane, USS Sirocco and USS Thunderbolt were delivered to Alexandria, a port city in northern Egypt. The monthlong, 6,400-kilometer journey to Alexandria included port visits to Duqm, Oman;, Djibouti; Berenice, Egypt; and Jebel Ali in the United Arab Emirates. As the boats arrived in Alexandria, Egyptian and U.S. navies continued joint training in search and rescue, damage control, engineering and weapons handling. “The Egyptian naval forces have recently witnessed a huge technological leap in armament systems…

ADF STAFF They toil for long, grueling hours without water or food. They sleep on the decks of the fishing vessels where they work, exposed to the elements. There is no medicine if they get sick, and they are routinely forced to work long after their contracts have expired with no additional pay. That is what often happens to some workers who are tricked or forced into working on foreign industrial fishing vessels and have no way to escape. It is a form of human trafficking that often goes unnoticed by authorities. Human trafficking is one of many crimes linked…

ADF STAFF Despite months of discussions aimed at returning Sudan’s government to civilian control after the October 2021 military coup, Sudanese citizens remain skeptical that anything will change soon. “The vast majority of Sudanese people, particularly in the streets, have little to no trust in the military and other actors in the political process,” Hamid Khalafallah, a nonresident fellow at the Tahrir Institute for Middle East Policy (TIMEP), told ADF via email. That distrust has been earned, Khalafallah said, because the transition is being led by the same men — Gen. Abdelfattah al-Burhan and Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo (widely known…

ADF STAFF In March, a steady stream of beleaguered Boko Haram fighters and their family members surrendered to Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) troops in Niger and Nigerian Army troops serving in Operation Hadin Kai in northern Nigeria. A total of 443 Boko Haram members and affiliated people surrendered over a four-day stretch. Many said they were fleeing relentless attacks by the rival extremist group Islamic State West Africa Province. Ex-fighters urged others to follow suit and lay down arms. “You are no longer going out to fight wars in other places, you are now waging wars against yourselves,” said…

ADF STAFF After losing tens of thousands of its mercenaries fighting in Ukraine, the Wagner Group has begun to scale back its operations there so it can expand its footprint in Africa, according to Bloomberg. The shift is happening as Wagner’s leader, Yevgeny Prigozhin, has said Russia is limiting Wagner by failing to supply ammunition and support personnel. After swelling its Ukrainian forces with Russian prisoners and a small number of African fighters, Wagner’s defeats in Ukraine made it difficult to get more fighters to join, according to analysts. Wagner recently has begun recruiting to replace the estimated 30,000 fighters…

ADF STAFF Maritime leaders from 31 of Africa’s 38 coastal countries gathered in Cabo Verde in late March to discuss collaborative strategies to tackle sea crime during the first-ever African Maritime Forces Summit.  Expected to become an annual conference, the summit involved the senior-most maritime leadership from around the continent, as well as Europe, North America and South America. Cabo Verde, in partnership with U.S. Naval Forces Europe and Africa, hosted the three-day summit. During the summit, leaders discussed an array of maritime security issues, including illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing — which costs the continent close to an…

ADF STAFF Days after the collapse of a cease-fire negotiated by Angolan President João Lourenço between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the M23 rebels, Angola took a more hands-on approach. On March 11, Lourenço announced a one-year deployment of up to 500 Soldiers to help establish and maintain peace in DRC’s restless eastern region. “This unit’s main objective is to secure the areas where the members of the M23 are stationed and to protect” members of a team tasked with monitoring compliance with the ceasefire, the office of the president said in a statement. The countries share…

ADF STAFF Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in Kenya has declined significantly since the country established a Coast Guard in 2018. That is according to Timothy Wamalwa, an operator in the Kenyan Coast Guard, who credited international maritime security exercises such as Cutlass Express with helping enhance the country’s maritime domain awareness and security efforts. Joint training with the U.S. Coast Guard on small boat operations “was a plus to our knowledge and handling of boats at sea,” Wamalwa said of Cutlass Express 2023 (CE23), which ended March 17. The 11-day exercise based in Djibouti, Kenya and Mauritius was…

ADF STAFF Kenya’s Standard Gauge Railway was billed as a major economic driver that would benefit the region. However, six years after it opened, the railway has become a financial burden for the country and a key part of its deteriorating relationship with China. The railway was built by the China Road and Bridge Corporation under former President Uhuru Kenyatta based on a no-bid contract and with a $3.6 billion loan from China’s Exim Bank. The China Road and Bridge feasibility study claimed the railway would be profitable by moving 22 million tons of freight a year, or 20 trains…

ADF STAFF A new United Nations report shows that the number of people killed in Mali continued to increase in 2022, despite pledges by the government to stamp out extremist violence. On March 22, the U.N. mission in Mali, MINUSMA, published its quarterly report for October through December 2022 that showed security in the country continues to worsen. During that three months, 2,001 people were affected by acts of violence, including more than 370 people who were kidnapped or disappeared. Extremist groups are the main perpetrators of violence in the country and are responsible for 56% of recorded violations, the…