ADF

ADF STAFF Africa agriculture experts are calling for countries across the continent to increase their capacity for local food production to avoid future food shocks like the one created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The invasion that began in February shut down exports of grain, fertilizer and other key agricultural components from both countries, which are two of the world’s leading exporters of foodstuffs. As a result, prices for bread and other staples spiked across Africa, setting off a nutritional crisis in some countries. Africa does $4.5 billion in business with Ukraine, the great majority of that in grain imports.…

ADF STAFF West African governments should consider renegotiating deals with foreign distant-water fishing companies that often offer little benefit to either party, according to a maritime expert at Duke University. Analyzing 2017 data, John Virdin, director of the ocean and coastal policy program at the Nicholas Institute for Environmental Policy Solutions at Duke in the United States, noted that most bottom trawlers in Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone are owned by Chinese companies. The foreign trawlers notoriously engage in illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. In Ghana, Liberia and Sierra Leone, foreign industrial fishing fleets generated little or…

ADF STAFF Recent media campaigns by the Islamic State group have encouraged fighters to pursue hijra, or migration, to Africa and foster extremism. Experts predict more terrorism on the continent. Since the Islamic State terrorist group’s defeat in Iraq and Syria, the organization has shown an intention to revive itself through multiple branches in Africa. If the group’s promotion of Africa as a destination for extremism “proves to be sustained and successful, the group may continue to build its ranks, alliances, and reach in the region, which could in turn result in more violence and pose a threat to any form…

ADF STAFF Highly trained dogs recently helped arrest three poachers suspected of killing rhinos in South Africa’s Kruger National Park. Rangers in helicopters spotted one dead rhino and an injured rhino after tourists alerted them to gunshots in the park in June. They dispatched rangers and K-9 units. The dogs picked up the scent of three Mozambican nationals armed with a high-caliber hunting rifle, ammunition and horns from three rhinos, France 24 reported. They quickly arrested the suspected poachers. In South Africa, home to 80% of the world’s rhino population, K-9 units play an important role in combating poaching. South…

ADF STAFF Mohamed Znagui Sid’Ahmed Ely knows the security challenges of the Sahel well. A former brigadier general in the Mauritanian Army, he has spent time in command positions, as an instructor and at the country’s general staff headquarters. He humbly says, “My career is a normal career of an officer,” but his resume shows he has been at the forefront of the region’s fight against extremism.  He commanded the region’s Joint Military Staff Committee (CEMOC) in Tamanrasset, Algeria, and later was appointed inspector general of the Mauritanian Armed Forces. He also spent time overseas as a defense attaché.  In…

ADF STAFF There’s a fantastic amount of gold to be found in the Sahel. In addition to the region’s large-scale industrial mines, there are small artisanal mines — hundreds of them in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger — with people, including children, mining gold with simple hand tools. A 2019 International Crisis Group report said that more than 2 million people in the three countries work in small-scale artisanal mines. With so many mines and miners, the three countries can’t protect them from attacks and raids by terrorists and robbers. The region has become the center of a surge in…

ADF STAFF As the sun set on the final day of Ramadan, a muezzin called faithful Muslims to prayer. They solemnly prostrated themselves on prayer mats in a courtyard before enjoying the iftar, a dinner laid out on a communal table and eaten after sundown during Ramadan.  It is a tradition that dates back centuries, but the setting was unusual: the home of the Catholic archbishop of Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso. He had invited local Muslims to celebrate the holy day at his home. “Together we must demolish walls and build bridges,” Cardinal Philippe Nakellentuba Ouédraogo said after the meal.…

ADF STAFF A member of Nigeria’s Formed Police Unit prepares to patrol Mogadishu as part of the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM). As the mission enters its 15th year, it salutes the tens of thousands of Soldiers, police officers and civilians from eight countries who have served since it began in 2007. These men and women have helped restore some degree of peace to Somalia after decades of civil war. Many challenges remain, but the AMISOM forces who lace up their shoes each morning and suit up for work have shown that they are prepared to meet them.  

ADF STAFF Abubakar Shekau had cheated death before. Several times since the brutal Boko Haram leader took control of the Nigeria-based violent extremist group in 2009, announcements of his demise had gone out. Each time they were premature — until May 2021. Reports again alleged that Shekau had been killed, this time during a battle with a rival faction of Boko Haram known as the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP). The news, which turned out to be true, came in an audio recording made by the rival faction. A voice thought to be that of ISWAP leader Abu Musab…

ADF STAFF Students at the Government Science College in Nigeria’s Niger State were sleeping one night in February 2021 when more than 50 gunmen from a nearby forest raided the campus, with only a single guard to offer resistance. Even though a police station was less than 3 kilometers away, the invaders roamed the campus for three hours without interference. They fled back to the forest, taking 42 hostages, most of them boys about 15 years old, according to The Africa Report magazine. The invasion sparked a national uproar. It was similar to the kidnappings of 276 Chibok girls by…