ADF

ADF STAFF As it struggles with rising inflation and continuing drought, Djibouti has become the latest country to suspend its payments on Chinese debt. Djibouti’s decision to withhold repayment makes it the second African nation after Zambia to take that step. China is Djibouti’s largest creditor, holding more than $1.4 billion in debt — the equivalent of about 45% of the country’s gross domestic product, according to the International Monetary Fund. Djibouti is among 22 African countries considered to be in financial distress, according to the World Bank. Like Djibouti, many of them carry heavy Chinese debt burdens. By suspending…

ADF STAFF In early 2021, Zimbabwe President Emmerson Mnangagwa officially opened the country’s National Data Center, proclaiming the Chinese-built data hub key to the country’s economic advancement. The center compiles information from government records along with material from private companies, such as banks. Leaders of human rights and civil society groups worry that the data center can be a way for the government to track citizens’ activities and suppress dissent, in violation of Zimbabwe’s constitution. It is Zimbabwe’s latest project embracing the use of Chinese surveillance technology. China has provided Zimbabwe with nearly $240 million to develop NetOne, the national…

ADF STAFF Boko Haram has destroyed more than 5,000 classrooms in northeast Nigeria since launching its insurgency in 2009. It’s one part of an overarching strategy to force children to join extremist terror groups in the Lake Chad Basin region. Research published by the Managing Exits from Armed Conflict (MEAC) project in December 2022 examined the tactics, practices and conditions that have resulted in the recruitment of thousands of children. “Mass abductions, attacks on schools, forced marriage and use of child soldiers highlight the numerous grave violations that have been committed against children by Boko Haram,” the report stated. “In…

ADF STAFF The mystery of a Russian cargo ship docking at South Africa’s largest naval base in early December did more than spark concerns of opaque weapons trading. It has renewed focus on the still-smoldering accusations of corruption and outsize Russian influence that dogged South Africa for years. On December 6 under cover of darkness, the Lady R cruised into Simon’s Town with its identification transponder switched off. The vessel has been internationally sanctioned as part of Russia’s military export-import business since Russia invaded Ukraine. Citizens saw cargo unloaded with armed guards looking on. “We are aware that munitions were…

ADF STAFF When he opened a recent meeting of the regional bloc he chairs, Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embaló urged a new response to West Africa’s rash of coups. He was speaking from experience, having escaped a failed coup that left 11 people dead on February 1, 2022. At its annual summit in Abuja, Nigeria, on December 4, 2022, leaders from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) decided to establish a new regional peacekeeping force to help restore democracy and civilian rule in cases of coups. “There is an urgent need to stem the waves of unconstitutional changes…

ADF STAFF Protesters say Sudan’s new agreement, intended to reset its transition to civilian rule, does little to constrain the military’s power. The country’s military junta signed the agreement in early December with a group of political and business groups in Khartoum. It calls for appointing a new prime minister, removing the military from politics and from large parts of the economy, and starting a new two-year transition to civilian rule. “The goals of the agreement are establishing a fully civilian authority, creating a free climate for politics, and reaching a final agreement with the widest political participation,” Al-Wathiq al-Barir,…

ADF STAFF The Chinese government has established a network of overseas police stations that, observers say, are used to crack down on dissent and could pose a threat to host countries. A 2022 report by Safeguard Defenders, a nonprofit human rights organization, says China has opened more than 50 such stations on five continents through operations known as Sky Net and Fox Hunt. In Africa, China operates stations in Lesotho, Nigeria and Tanzania. The stations purportedly are to combat telecommunications fraud and internet crimes by Chinese citizens living abroad. But the Safeguard Defenders report showed that methods used by the…

ADF STAFF In an effort to bolster its military, which has suffered heavy losses in Ukraine, Russia reportedly is freeing prisoners from jails in Africa and conscripting them to fight in its war. Two senior military sources in the Central African Republic (CAR) recently told independent Nigerian journalist Philip Obaji that dozens of jailed rebels have been recruited into the Russia’s infamous mercenary Wagner Group. “Security sources in the Central African Republic have told me that the Wagner Group is currently recruiting ethnic Fulanis who could be deployed to Ukraine,” Obaji tweeted on November 10. “Hundreds of Fulani fighters, I’m…

ADF STAFF On December 22, units from the Somali National Army joined local clan militias to liberate Ruun-Nirgood, a strategically important community in the Middle Shabelle region. A military spokesman said the operation eliminated al-Shabaab’s last stronghold in the region and solidified the government’s control over Middle Shabelle, just north of the capital, Mogadishu. The assault was the latest in a string of successful campaigns against al-Shabaab by a rapidly improving Somali military. A sustained rebuilding effort aided by the African Union has produced a Somali military that can stand on its own and push back against al-Shabaab, according to…

ADF STAFF Fisheries officials have long known that trawlers involved in illegal fishing turn off their automatic identification systems (AIS) to cloak their activities. Researchers using Global Fishing Watch data have specified for the first time that West Africa is among the world’s hot spots for AIS disabling. The region is mostly targeted by China’s distant-water fishing fleet, the world’s largest. The study, which tracked AIS disabling between 2017 and 2019, showed that up to 6% of global fishing is hidden due to the practice. West Africa accounted for the third-highest number of AIS-disabled hours tracked in the study, trailing…