ADF

ADF STAFF As 2022 ended, the story of African security was marked by continuing conflicts, coups and the unrest caused by them. Civil war continued to roil Ethiopia, and regional forces continued their battle against jihadist militants in Somalia, the Sahel and northern Mozambique. Even Ebola reared its head again, this time in Uganda. Below is a rundown of some of the events and stories that continue to present security challenges across the continent as the year draws to a close. ETHIOPIA’S CIVIL WAR: After two years of civil war, there was hope of a breakthrough when Tigrayan and government…

ADF STAFF As Ukraine acquires weapons and materiel from NATO and other Western countries, Russia is pushing disinformation using social media to say that these weapons are falling into the hands of terrorists and criminals in Africa and around the world. “A considerable part of these weapons have already entered, or will soon enter, the black market,” Maria Zakharova, Russia’s foreign ministry spokeswoman, told reporters in Moscow in October 2022. “Now the world community is facing this.” “The NATO military cargos are ending up in the hands of terrorists, extremists and criminal groups in the Middle East, Central Africa and…

ADF STAFF Piracy in the Gulf of Guinea continues to drop as a result of efforts by regional and international navies and piracy convictions in Nigeria and Togo in 2021, according to a United Nations report. But, U.N. officials noted, part of the decline in piracy might be due to a shift by criminal networks to other crimes, especially oil bunkering. The Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project noted that over the past 15 years, the Gulf had become the world’s hot spot for piracy. Incidents included armed attacks, vessel boarding and hijacking, kidnappings, and murder. But although there were…

ADF STAFF Having overfished its own waters, China is sending its heavily subsidized industrial and semi-industrial trawlers to fisheries near Africa, Australia, Indonesia, the Korean peninsula, the Philippines and South America. In these places, Chinese ships frequently sail into exclusive economic zones, illegally catch tons of fish meant for local consumption and damage the ecosystems that help fish survive. In the Indo-Pacific region, for example, China is responsible for 95% of all illegal fishing. This year, leaders from Australia, India, Japan and the United States launched an initiative aimed at curbing China’s illegal fishing in the region. The plan is…

ADF STAFF Days after a coup d’etat in Burkina Faso in early 2022, a reporter stood on the campus of Joseph Ki-Zerbo University in Ouagadougou and asked students how they felt. A third-year philosophy student named Kadlé expressed a sentiment echoed by many Burkinabe. “We need elections, we need democracy, but if it doesn’t get results, what use is it?” he told Radio France Internationale. It’s a view repeated all over the Sahel region. A lack of security has left fed up citizens willing to support anyone who promises a return to safety. This, combined with a crisis of confidence…

ADF STAFF When experts and activists gathered recently to advance a different approach to conflict resolution in Africa, they found their host nation of Burundi to be a fitting backdrop. “No one knows what the devastation of war is all about like the people here in this region,” Frederic Gateretse-Ngoga said. “This is a region which has known genocides, so we know what it means.” Ngoga has the credentials to help improve the peacebuilding process with an approach known as “social peace.” Ngoga heads the Early Warning and Conflict Prevention Division in the African Union’s Peace and Security Department and…

ADF STAFF In 2020, Zimbabwean journalist Hopewell Chin’ono published an article online that exposed government misuse of funds intended to help the country fight the COVID-19 pandemic. He was arrested a short time later and charged with inciting violence. It would be the first of several arrests for Chin’ono, who has repeatedly posted comments critical of the government on his social media channels. Zimbabwe’s constitution guarantees free expression, but in recent years authorities have cracked down on social media posts and other online activity deemed critical of the government. In December 2021, President Emmerson Mnangagwa signed the Data Protection Act,…

ADF STAFF Collectively, Africa’s coastal countries are responsible for more than 13 million square kilometers of maritime territory, a huge undertaking that is beyond the capacity of most countries. Enter unmanned vehicles. Countries are embracing the use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) and unmanned surface vehicles (USVs) to strengthen their ability to patrol and control their coastal waters. Drones allow for surveillance and documentation of piracy, illegal fishing and other activities with minimal human resources. “One takeaway is the enhanced situational awareness from this technology expanding the range of sight in the field against targets in the field,” Nigerian drone…

ADF STAFF About one-third of Africa’s 1.3 billion people are online these days, with millions more expected to join them as mobile and broadband technology expands rapidly across the continent. With so many new users joining the internet, financial scammers, identity thieves and other malicious actors are targeting people across the continent. According Check Point Research, African nations experienced an average of 1,848 cyberattacks per week in 2022, a number that was higher than the rest of the world combined. Nigeria, which has Africa’s largest number of internet users, remains an origination point and a primary target for cyberattacks, followed…

ADF STAFF After visiting Kyiv, Ukraine, in April, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres took a delayed trip to the Sahel to focus international attention on the deteriorating security situation there. His dilemma, and that of the entire African continent, was how to address crises amid an overwhelming international focus on Ukraine. Numerous threats to peace and safety on the continent bubbled to the surface in 2022, while older perils festered. Looking ahead to 2023, African security experts who spoke to ADF predicted the top security challenges for the coming year and offered thoughts on how to respond to them. Rising…