ADF

ADF STAFF Fishing was a reliable livelihood in coastal Ghanaian communities such as Apam, Cape Coast and Elmina for centuries. The waters still bustle with fishing activities, but for years fishermen have returned to shore with gradually smaller catches. Locals blame the lack of fish on large industrial trawlers, mostly Chinese. For years, the vessels practiced “saiko,” the illegal transshipment of fish at sea. The trawlers typically transfer their massive catch to a large canoe capable of carrying about 450 times more fish than an artisanal fishing canoe. The transfers at sea help trawlers avoid catch limits. “My family and…

ADF STAFF Nigerian officials hope to use South African technology to help protect their nation’s marine resources. The technology would help Nigeria monitor the movement of vessels anywhere in its waters, George Moghalu, managing director of the Nigerian Inland Waterways Authority, said in a report by the Independent Nigeria newspaper. Moghalu said in late September that he exchanged visits with a South African technology company, but he did not name the company. The unspecified technology could help combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, piracy, kidnapping, and weapons and drug smuggling, among other sea crimes. “We visited them and they…

ADF STAFF In 1861, 3,000 heavily armed female Soldiers charged a thorny wall during a skills demonstration. King Glele, their ruler in Dahomey, a region that is now part of Benin, was eager to show off the ferocity and skill of his warriors. The 400-meter-long wall bristled with acacia branches with 5-centimeter-long, needle-sharp thorns. The women were barefoot, armed with clubs and knives. Some of them — “Reapers” — had 1-meter-long razors that, the king said, could be used to cut a man in half. The warriors charged the wall, ignoring the savage wounds caused by the thorns. They clawed…

CLUES Humans have fished and hunted in the area for 2,000 years, creating shellfish mounds, some of which are several hundred meters long.  Some of the mounds contain burial sites.  This area was formed within the delta of three rivers. It includes 200 islands and islets, mangrove forests, and a mix of salt water and fresh water.  ANSWER  Saloum Delta, Senegal

ADF STAFF The Lake Chad region boasts interconnected communities that share ethnic and economic ties across four countries. They have traded and intermingled with one another for centuries. But the arrival of Boko Haram has damaged these ties and destroyed local economies. Since 2013, the terrorist group has infiltrated communities across the region where Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria meet. Today, Boko Haram dominates the cross-border economy, generating millions of dollars through operating public markets, and an array of crimes such as extortion, kidnapping and armed robbery. “The group preys on local communities for its resilience, survival and capacity to…

ADF STAFF From the coasts of Africa to South America, around the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific, China’s distant-water fleet (DWF) is steadily decimating fish stocks worldwide. China’s bottom trawl fleet catches an estimated 2.35 million tons of fish per year around the African continent worth more than $5 billion, according to the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF). “That is huge chunks of money that can be ill afforded,” Steve Trent, EJF founder and CEO, told Financial Times. “The people that are affected, as is so often the case, are primarily the poor coastal communities. When the fish is gone,…

ADF STAFF More than 20 nations recently completed the Grand African Navy Exercise for Maritime Operations (NEMO) 2022, an annual event led by the French Navy. The first phase focused on at-sea skills such as boarding vessels to combat illegal fishing, piracy, drug trafficking, pollution and performing at-sea rescues. The second phase focused on collaboration and information sharing between national maritime operational centers, maritime coordination centers and regional maritime safety centers. “This exercise is organized in the framework of the code of conduct resulting from the Yaoundé process,” Nigerian Navy Chief of Staff Vice Adm. Awwal Gambo said in a…

ADF STAFF After Burkina Faso’s second coup d’état on September 30, people took to the streets of Ouagadougou waving Russian flags. They gathered, in part, as a result of Russia’s relentless disinformation efforts, which paint Moscow as a counterterror ally. But they also revealed something deeper about Burkina Faso: The country is yearning for peace. “The population is desperate to find some kind of a savior for the nation,” International Crisis Group’s Sahel Project Director Jean-Hervé Jezequel said in an October 7 podcast. Experts warn that peace is unlikely to follow Russian involvement. There are signs that Russia might seize…

ADF STAFF Beatrice Otoo has been a fish processor in Accra, Ghana, for 20 years. Thanks to the unrelenting presence of industrial fishing vessels in Ghanaian waters, her once-thriving business is drowning. “The market has gone down,” Otoo told Ghana Web. “People don’t buy or patronize our fish as they used to because they claim they are expensive and that living conditions are hard. Besides that, fish is scarce to get nowadays. Previously, we used to buy fish from the local artisanal fishermen, but now the fishermen don’t bring in fish. What they bring are insufficient for the market.” Like…

ADF STAFF Two military coups in eight months in Burkina Faso have failed to deliver promised security but may be opening the door to greater Russian interference. Between the coup at the end of January and the second coup in September, terrorist attacks increased by more than 100% compared to the same period in 2021 — 3,244 people killed compared to 1,545 — according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project. More than 2 million people in Burkina Faso have been displaced by insurgent violence since 2015. “It feels like deja vu,” Sahel expert and Clingendael Institute researcher…