ADF

ADF STAFF Terrorist organizations need a constant stream of money to function, and a growing body of evidence suggests they get this funding by trafficking natural resources. Oil, gas, wildlife, timber, and minerals such as gold, diamonds and coltan are all items that terrorist groups exploit to finance their operations. Terrorists often benefit from weak regulations, lack of transparency and blatant corruption in the countries where they secure those resources. As they fund their own operations with illicit trading, terrorist groups starve local economies of cash and threaten regional security, according to an analysis by South Africa’s Institute for Security…

ADF STAFF Hardly a meal goes by that people don’t feel the effects of Russia’s war on Ukraine. One year after Russia’s invasion, food prices remain elevated and inflation is devouring the budgets of consumers, governments and relief agencies. In Kenya, the cost of cooking oil, fuel, cooking gas and other basic commodities spiked and was followed by price increases on common foods such as corn meal, bread and chapati. For many, the prices have made some foods unaffordable. The Kenya Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis said 14.5% of all food consumed in Kenya in 2022 was imported,…

ADF STAFF About 20% of illegally caught fish worldwide comes from waters near The Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mauritania, Senegal and Sierra Leone, according to a new report by news organization Investigative Journalism Reportika (Ij-Reportika). Most of the fish are caught by vessels from China, which commands the world’s largest distant-water fishing fleet and holds the world’s worst illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing record, according to the IUU Fishing Index. China’s overfishing of West African waters drives food insecurity and harms the artisanal fishing industry. In Ghana, for example, the average annual income has dropped by as much as 40% per artisanal canoe in…

ADF STAFF The annual African Chiefs of Defense (CHoD) Conference 2023 offered a rare opportunity for military leaders of African nations to learn from fellow commanders on the front lines of some of the continent’s toughest battles. Many argued that chiefs of defense must find new ways to collect and institutionalize the lessons their troops learn in the field. “In the militaries and the assignments that we all have, learning is a responsibility of command,” Botswana’s Commander of the Defence Force Lt. Gen. Placid Segokgo told attendees. “It should go vertically from the bottom up and from the top down.…

ADF STAFF Experts say Russia is expanding influence efforts on the continent through the Wagner Group, designed to bolster African governments that partner with its mercenaries, such as the Central African Republic (CAR) and Mali. This campaign harms continent-wide efforts to promote democracy and self-determination, according to Djibril Fofana, a Burkina Faso-based advisor for the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change. Fofana explained in The Africa Report that these campaigns are aimed primarily at discrediting African democratic systems and legitimizing the Russian authoritarian model as an alternative for leaders trying to maintain power. Russian disinformation campaigns in Africa have included everything from…

ADF STAFF More than 200 Boko Haram fighters and some of their commanders surrendered to Nigerian troops after the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) launched an attack on the rival extremist group in northeast Borno State. It was the latest in a series of clashes between the groups since 2020, when ISWAP launched attacks that led to the death of Abubakar Shekau, Boko Haram’s leader. Infighting between ISWAP, Boko Haram and its faction Jama’atu Ahlis Sunna Lidda’awati wal-Jihad (JAS) benefits the efforts of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) to restore peace to the area. The 10,000-man MNJTF is…

ADF STAFF The Ilemi Triangle is a sparsely populated, poorly demarcated tract of land on the border between Kenya and South Sudan. For years analysts have warned that this small, arid region has the potential to drive cross-border conflict. However, Kenya and South Sudan are taking steps to define control over the Ilemi Triangle that could provide a model for how other African countries can resolve border disputes, experts say. The Triangle, which covers between 10,000 and 14,000 square kilometers, is a legacy of poorly drawn colonial boundaries. Multiple surveys between 1902 and 1950 created four different configurations for the…

ADF STAFF Authorities seized 3,000 rifles, hundreds of rounds of ammunition and antitank missiles from a fishing vessel in the Gulf of Oman on January 15. The Iranian weapons were destined for the Houthi militia in Yemen. Eleven days earlier, 2,000 assorted Iranian weapons bound for Yemen were intercepted on a fishing vessel in the same area, according to the Regional Maritime Information Fusion Center (RMIFC) in Madagascar. Without vessel information the RMIFC shared with local authorities, some of the weapons might have wound up in Somalia and sold to violent extremist groups such as al-Shabaab and the Islamic State…

ADF STAFF Protesters in Sudan’s Red Sea State continue to call for the Sudan Armed Forces to shut down a gold mine it operates within the Dordeib military base. The protests are the latest public outcry against the practices of the country’s military-dominated gold mining industry. “We have been wondering how it is possible that mining plants have been established inside an army base, and why the army diverges from its real tasks and sets up commercial enterprises instead,” one protester told Sudan’s Radio Dabanga. Sudan’s military is deeply involved in the country’s economy, from gold mines to farm fields…

ADF STAFF Tension is escalating in northern Mali, where a fragile peace plan is teetering on the verge of collapse. The Tuareg rebellion ended in 2015 with the Algiers peace accord, but because it has never been fully implemented, the conflict between former rebels and the government has festered. With Mali’s military junta taking a more adversarial approach in recent months, some fear that violent confrontations are on the horizon. Amadou Albert Maïga, a member of the National Transition Council that acts as a legislative body for the unelected government, recently said the Malian army would act soon. “War is…