ADF

ADF STAFF Every February 14 in a remote part of northwestern Cameroon, the people of Ngarbuh village gather to pray around the graves of the 21 civilians killed in 2020 by a group of soldiers and militiamen in one of the worst atrocities of the still-simmering civil war. After initially denying responsibility, the army investigated and released a statement calling it “an unfortunate accident, the collateral result of security operations in the region.” Ma-Shey Margaret survived, but all of her neighbors were killed, including an uncle and his entire family. A row of five burned-out homes stands nearby as a…

ADF STAFF The Islamic State group has doubled its presence in Somalia in recent months due to an influence of foreign fighters, many of them coming from countries in Africa and the Middle East, according to the United Nations. The U.N. Sanctions Monitoring Team for Somalia estimates IS-Somalia now has 600 to 700 fighters. The expansion has enabled IS to expand its operations and challenge al-Shabaab, which is affiliated with IS’s rival al-Qaida. IS-Somalia has taken over some former al-Shabaab territory in the mountains of northern Somalia. Fighters are coming from Ethiopia, Morocco, Syria, Sudan, Tanzania and Yemen. In most…

ADF STAFF South African children as young as 11 are being radicalized and recruited to commit terror acts, according to an Institute for Security Studies expert who spoke at the Border Management Conference and Expo in Pretoria in November. Young people in areas such as the East Rand, Hillbrow, Mayfair and Soweto are being radicalized in madrassas, which are religious schools or colleges that teach Islamic subjects. Young people are also increasingly targeted by terror groups through social media. According to the institute, the risk has not been addressed effectively due to a lack of intelligence capacity. “This is ongoing…

ADF STAFF Among the most pressing issues that must be addressed by Ghana’s new president, John Dramani Mahama, is devising and deploying a coherent, multifaceted approach to the growing threat of terrorist groups spilling south from the Sahel. Mahama, who held the same position from 2012 to 2017, made the country’s economic crisis his dominant platform, and experts have long called for much more investment in the north to complement Ghana’s military approach to preventing militants from gaining ground. He is originally from Damongo in northern Ghana, which raises hopes that he will restore peace to the region. “Expectations of…

ADF STAFF After years of propping up Syrian despot Bashar al-Assad with a combination of military and mercenary might, Russia ultimately could not protect him from a rebel offensive that quickly toppled the government in December. While the downfall of Assad has worldwide geopolitical implications, it reverberated particularly strongly in Africa, where Russia is supporting military juntas and autocratic leaders. “[It] is a strategic political defeat for Moscow and has thrown the Kremlin into a crisis,” the Institute for the Study of War wrote on December 8. “Russia’s inability or decision to not reinforce Assad’s regime as the Syrian opposition…

ADF STAFF Five men entered a roofless, windowless concrete structure on the island of Lamu, just off the Kenyan coast. They sat on the building’s trash-strewn floor and used razors to cut heroin with marijuana, rolling it into a thin cigarette and smoking it. Among the men was Mohamed Tai, one of Kenya’s estimated 27,000 heroin users, who spoke openly about his addiction. Beside him, two men sat hunched over, their eyes directed at the floor, while another man calmly pulled on the thin cigarette. “It is a very bad addiction, but it is ignored by the community, government and…

ADF STAFF Central African journalist Ephrem Yalike-Ngonzo recalls the first time he was approached by a Russian man named Micha who offered him 200,000 CFA francs (about $320) per month to spread disinformation and propaganda for the Kremlin. The year was 2019, and the money was more than twice his salary as editor-in-chief of a local pro-government news website called Le Potentiel Centrafricain. “In the Central African media, few people earn more than 150,000 CFA francs (about $240),” Yalike told Radio France Internationale. Yalike exposed Russia’s sprawling disinformation operation in the Central African Republic (CAR) as part of a two-year…

ADF STAFF Since Russia invaded Ukraine, it has extracted at least $2.5 billion worth of gold from Africa through illicit operations facilitated by its paramilitary forces. That money, taken from artisanal and small-scale mines in Burkina Faso, the Central African Republic, Eritrea, Guinea, Libya, Mali and Sudan, “has been funneled back into the Russian war machine,” according to a World Gold Council report published in November. “The mysterious death of Yevgeny Prigozhin, head of the Russian mercenary Wagner Group, in a plane crash in August 2023, has not curtailed Russia’s looting and pillaging of natural resources around the world —…

ADF STAFF After years of restricting online dissent, Zambia emerged in 2024 as a model for improved internet freedom, according to the most recent Freedom on the Net report by Freedom House. Zambia saw the biggest improvement in internet freedom of the 72 countries studied between mid-2023 and mid-2024. On a scale of 0 (not free) to 100 (free), Zambia improved from 59 in 2023 to 62 in 2024. In recent years, Zambia has improved its online environment. In 2022, the government abolished Section 67 of the Penal Code Act that punished people for defaming the president. In December 2023,…

ADF STAFF As United Nations peacekeeping missions in Africa face criticism, protests and, in some cases, are being forced to withdraw, the mission in the Central African Republic has bucked the trend. In November, the U.N. Security Council renewed MINUSCA’s mandate for another year, news that was met with approval by the host country’s government and civil society groups, according to published reports. “MINUSCA is a strategic partner of the Central African government,” Maxime Balalou, spokesman for the CAR government, told Radio Ndeke Luka. “MINUSCA has done a lot for the government, even if we’ve had some challenges. … With…