ADF

ADF STAFF In Ghana’s northeast corner, residents of border communities such as Sapelliga and Bawku see citizens of Burkina Faso fleeing violence and many wonder when it will descend on them. “Everyone in this community is worried because we don’t know exactly where [terrorists] are and where they come from,” Sapelliga resident Awudu Abanga told DW news service. “Who knows where the terrorists will come from?” Bawku, a key trading hub for the region, is a 45-minute drive from the Burkinabé community of Bittou, where terrorists killed six people in December. As they have watched their neighbors repel repeated attacks,…

ADF STAFF Large, indiscriminate ambushes by the Islamic State Sahel Province (IS Sahel) on rival terrorist groups, government forces and civilians in northeast Mali has contributed to the highest civilian death count since conflict erupted there more than a decade ago. IS Sahel was a target of France’s counter-extremist campaign known as Operation Barkhane, which ended in November. The group has since launched an offensive on an “unprecedented scale,” according to ACLED, a conflict monitoring group. “Since the end of the Barkhane operation, we can feel the rise in power of the Islamic State,” Baba Dakono, a political and security…

ADF STAFF Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) Lt. Col. Peter Mwangi smiled broadly when asked about the effect of Exercise Justified Accord on his participating Soldiers. “This multinational exercise is the best form of morale for our troops,” he told ADF. The commanding officer of the KDF’s 27th Mechanized Infantry Battalion, Mwangi listed several goals of the exercise, singling out one that he felt was most important — promoting cooperation to neutralize terrorism in the East Africa region. “We want to make sure our troops are ready,” he said. Many of the exercise’s highlights went a long way toward accomplishing those…

ADF STAFF Nearly five years after they first arrived in Libya, Wagner Group mercenaries show no signs that they’re willing to leave the country, despite a joint demand by representatives of Libya’s rival governments for them to do so. Since the 2020 ceasefire that ended active hostilities between Libya’s warring factions, an estimated 2,000 Wagner mercenaries have settled in the central part of the country. From there, they continue to train soldiers based in the east under the command of Gen. Khalifa Haftar. Wagner fighters have focused much of their activity around oil facilities in the eastern Cyrenaika province bordering…

ADF STAFF Somali forces killed six al-Shabaab fighters in late January, but not before the terrorists bombed the office of Mogadishu’s mayor, stormed a government facility, killed at least five civilians and injured at least 16 more. It was one of the latest in a series of terrorist attacks that have increasingly been perpetrated in Somalia and other parts of sub-Saharan Africa in recent years. Like al-Shabaab, violent extremist groups such as Al-Sunna wa Jama’a, or ASWJ, Boko Haram, Daesh and Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen, or JNIM, are seizing on local grievances to establish a foothold in mostly rural…

ADF STAFF For years, Iranian weapons have wound up in Somalia, where they are sold to violent extremist groups such as al-Shabaab and the Islamic State. Through financial incentives, Iran established a proxy network in Somalia and has used the country to funnel weapons to the Houthi militia in Yemen since around 2016. A new report by the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) revealed that the weapons smuggling network also likely extends to groups linked to al-Shabaab in Ethiopia, Kenya and Mozambique, fueling insecurity around the Horn of Africa. Iranian weapons also are commonly transported to the Central African Republic, South Sudan…

ADF STAFF A Framework Political Agreement signed December 5 between Sudan’s ruling military junta and a collection of civilian political groups has been praised as the first step on the path to democracy. However, observers fear the close ties between junta member Gen. Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo and Moscow could derail the transition and keep Sudan under the military’s control. In February 2022, Dagalo, also known as Hemedti, visited Moscow as part of the long-running relationship between his Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and Russian backers — most notably Wagner Group mercenaries. Wagner mercenaries have trained RSF members, and the two groups…

ADF STAFF Nearly 40 Somali Police Force (SPF) officers finished a week of training in community policing that officials hope will help turn the tide against the al-Shabaab insurgency. Conducted by the Police Component of the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), the training was attended by 17 station commanders and six representatives from the Community Policing Directorate. The training included courses on conflict resolution, professional standards, ethics, countering violent extremism, community engagement and gender issues. It ended February 7. “The community policing training is key in enhancing the capacity of the SPF to take over the country’s security responsibilities…

ADF STAFF A group of herders were tending to their cattle in a pasture near Airamne village in Nigeria’s restive northeastern borderlands when the shooting began. Boko Haram fighters emerged from their camps in Gajiganna forest on December 24, 2022 to launch an attack. The herders returned fire. Babakura Kolo, a self-defense militia leader, said 17 pastoralists were killed in the fight, their cattle stolen. “The herders put [up] resistance but were outgunned and outnumbered by the attackers, who had better weapons,” he told Agence France-Presse. The clash shows the extent of insecurity in the Lake Chad Basin, which has…

ADF STAFF Sub-Saharan Africa is the world’s new epicenter for violent extremism, and most people who join extremist organizations said they were motivated by a lack of work, according to a new report by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). Nearly 2,200 people from Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia and Sudan were interviewed for the report titled “Journey to Extremism.” It follows up on a similar U.N. report published in 2017. “In many countries … the lack of income, the lack of job opportunities, livelihoods, desperation is essentially pushing people to take up opportunities with whoever offers…