ADF

ADF STAFF Critics are accusing a Chinese gold-mining company of threatening a protected forest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with toxic pollution. Kimia Mining operates in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve. A World Heritage Site, it is home to the endangered okapi, which resemble a small giraffe with a short neck; 17 species of primates and 376 species of birds. The reserve spans more than 13,000 square kilometers in the northeastern Ituri Province, near the borders of South Sudan and Uganda. It is part of the Congo Basin, a carbon sink that helps mitigate climate change. It is also…

ADF STAFF As Cyclone Chido swept ashore in northern Mozambique on December 15, it slung winds of 120 to 260 kph, doused Nampula and Cabo Delgado provinces in heavy rainfall, and destroyed homes, schools and other key infrastructure. The six-hour siege was devastating to a region already beset by more than seven years of insurgent violence at the hands of Islamic State (IS) group affiliate Ahl al-Sunna wal-Jama’a (ASWJ), known colloquially as al-Shabaab. As of December 31, the cyclone had killed at least 120 people in Mozambique. “When the cyclone came, I thought I was going to die. It was…

ADF STAFF Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty in late December 2024 announced that Egypt will contribute troops to the new African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM). The mission replaces the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), which ended December 31. AUSSOM is the 10th AU-led peacekeeping operation on the continent, as African governments and regional organizations increasingly handle security responsibilities once assumed by the United Nations. The most recent U.N. mission launched on the continent was in the Central African Republic in 2014.  As Obi Anyadike wrote in The New Humanitarian, U.N. missions traditionally have deployed with all-party…

ADF STAFF Members of the Nigerian and French navies responded by air and sea to a pirate attack in the Gulf of Guinea in late November. They boarded a ship with their guns drawn and searched for criminals and hostages. The simulated maritime security exercise was part of Crocodile Lift 2024, a three-day exercise that focused on countering piracy, sea robbery and crude oil theft in the Gulf of Guinea. Less than two weeks before, both navies participated in the Grand African Navy Exercise for Maritime Operations (NEMO) 2024. Nigerian Navy Rear Adm. Shehu Gombe, the flag officer commanding, Naval Doctrine…

ADF STAFF The Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) began initiatives to develop career paths for noncommissioned officers after it began rebuilding in the wake of the country’s devastating civil war, which ended in 2003. A milestone was reached in mid-December 2024 when 40 students completed a nine-week pilot course at the newly established Noncommissioned Officer Academy at the AFL’s Armed Forces Training Center at Camp Ware, Liberia. Each branch of the AFL was represented, and three female NCOs were among the graduates. “I cannot overemphasize the importance of professional education in the military,” the AFL’s Command Sgt. Maj. Plazian B.…

ADF STAFF Richard Kanu served in Sierra Leone’s military for more than 10 years, but nothing prepared him for the Russian army, which he says he was tricked into joining. As a migrant in St. Petersburg, he applied for a job by signing some Russian-language paperwork. He didn’t realize he had signed a contract for military service until he arrived at a base in Rostov-on-Don, just outside Ukraine. “They loaded us into a truck and I found myself in Donetsk,” he told the Kyiv Independent news website in 2024. “They said the contract you signed was to go to war.”…

ADF STAFF After a recent battle between the allies of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), fighters found a cache of unexpected documents. Among them were the passport, driver’s license and other documents belonging to a Colombian mercenary. In a video posted to the social platform X, formerly Twitter, a man in military fatigues speaks in Arabic as he records each document, all of them belonging to a 33-year-old Colombian corporal born in the Palestinian territories. “These are the people who are killing us,” one man says in the video. About 160 Colombian fighters…

ADF STAFF Amid the chaos of Sudan’s ongoing conflict, the country’s eastern Kassala State has remained relatively peaceful. However, the growing presence of militias in the region threatens to change that. Residents of Kassala and neighboring Gedaref states have reported convoys of military-style vehicles with mounted antiaircraft guns moving through in recent months. Sudanese militias have transited the region as they move from training camps in Eritrea and Ethiopia to fight the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in support of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in Khartoum, Kordofan and other areas. At the same time, militias that have been fighting the…

ADF STAFF Kenya and Rwanda are emerging as Africa’s leading nations for developing drone technology as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) play an increasing role in the continent’s daily life. While drones have made an impact on Africa’s battlefields, they are also becoming key tools in agriculture, health care and telecommunications, particularly in remote areas where infrastructure is limited. Rwanda, for example, uses drones to deliver blood to hospitals and clinics far from the country’s urban centers. “We’ve seen a lot of improvement in terms of health care delivery, thanks to drones. Mainly around the fact that you’re able to save…

ADF STAFF In Sudan’s ongoing civil war, the United Arab Emirates is facing increased scrutiny over its role in arming the Rapid Support Forces. Since the war began in 2023, United Nations experts and other official sources have cited “credible allegations” of large transfers of weapons and military supplies from the UAE to two of Sudan’s neighbors to the east, Libya and Chad. Observers say these arms are being shipped across the border and are fueling war in Sudan. The Sudan Armed Forces said it has recovered ammunition, vehicles and weapons systems of UAE-origin in the hands of the RSF.…