ADF

ADF STAFF Feeling pressure to make money, Dayo Sadiq decided to migrate from her home in Benin City, Nigeria, to Mali. She had been promised a job making up to $360 a month to clean houses. Like many other Nigerian women from Edo State, Dayo (who used a pseudonym) was deceived by a fake job offer from an acquaintance she met at the market. When she arrived at the outskirts of the Malian capital, Bamako, she was taken to a sex workers house guarded by armed men. “Men would come in to choose girls as a sex partner or they…

ADF STAFF A Chinese fishing company with a five-year right to fish for shrimp in Madagascar has kept its boats idle this year as they do not have licenses to trawl. The company, Mada Fishery, has a dubious history. Three of its eight boats in Madagascar previously were caught violating fishing laws in West Africa, according to the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF). “As recently as November 4, 2020, the vessels were intercepted by the Gambian Navy, Gambian Department of Fisheries and Sea Shepherd,” Steve Trent, chief executive officer of EJF, told Mongabay. “The trawlers were found to have been fishing…

ADF STAFF Mozambique’s restive northeastern province is abuzz with action. Despite recent losses, violent insurgents continue to attack villages and residents, while thousands of security forces fight to secure towns in order to welcome back displaced citizens and restore budding hopes of normalcy. At the same time, the government, international organizations, donor countries and a regional bloc working to stabilize southern Africa are debating and forming plans to rebuild the province. The number of moving parts, like the rebuilding challenge itself, is overwhelming. “In a beehive you have 40,000 bees, and each bee knows exactly what they’re doing,” independent South…

ADF STAFF Thousands of Malians are fleeing to the Mbera refugee camp in southern Mauritania to escape escalating violence in central Mali that they say is being driven by mercenaries associated with Russia’s Wagner Group. Wagner Group mercenaries arrived in Mali in December 2021, invited by the ruling junta to train the Malian military. Since then, Wagner forces have taken part in military actions in the central part of the country, looting markets and killing civilians indiscriminately as the Malian military confronts jihadists operating around Timbuktu. Since the arrival of the Wagner Group, the military’s actions have become more violent…

ADF STAFF Cameroonian citizens are pushing back against what they say are false promises of an economic windfall coming from Chinese investors. Several hundred people in the small coastal town of Lolabé protested on May 23 a recently announced government agreement giving iron ore mining rights to the subsidiary of a Chinese state-owned company called Sinosteel. The demonstration brought controversy and fresh scrutiny to the deal, as locals say these contracts do little to help the community and could be awarded to Cameroonian businesses. “Financially, this is an economic crime, a real incitement to revolt, a mafia trick,” politician Jean Michel…

ADF STAFF Some call cattle rustling one of the oldest crimes in human history. In Africa, cattle rustling dates back centuries and once was considered a cultural practice, sanctioned and organized by tribal elders and traditional leaders. Today, it has become a major security issue across the continent. “We have tried to criminalize this activity,” Kenyan member of Parliament Mark Lomunokol told KTN News network. “It is not supported anywhere by law, so it is a practice we will fight day and night to ensure that it’s eradicated forever.” In recent years, livestock-related crime has grown in size and violence,…

ADF STAFF Public sentiment against a planned $55 million industrial fishing harbor at Sierra Leone’s tourist-friendly Black Johnson Beach continues to be strong more than a year after it was revealed. Concerned residents started the Save Black Johnson Beach campaign last year and it has succeeded in pressuring the government to conduct an environmental impact assessment and identify protected animal species in the area, according to a May 2022 news release. The group claims to have established legal grounds to challenge the project. The government “knows it can’t go ahead” with the project “but refuses to admit it, so the…

ADF STAFF Once known as a killing field for Africa’s elephants, Tanzania has seen its elephant population grow substantially in recent years thanks in part to better protection against poaching and restrictions of illegal ivory sales. Maurus Msuha, director of wildlife in the Ministry of Natural Resources and Tourism, told the environmental group Oxpeckers International that militarizing anti-poaching operations and creating other systems to confront poachers has driven the change. “Therefore, we are good in the protection of wildlife,” Msuha said. Recent estimates of Tanzania’s elephant population show that it has grown by nearly 40% to more than 60,000 animals…

ADF STAFF Regional security and collaboration are the focus for more than 7,500 participants from African nations, the United States and NATO countries who came together for exercise African Lion 2022. Morocco is hosting the land, sea and air phases of the annual exercise, the 18th iteration. It’s U.S. Africa Command’s largest and oldest joint annual exercise on the continent. Gen. Belkhir El Farouk, second-in-command of Morocco’s military, welcomed personnel from 20 countries, including 10 African countries, at the June 20th opening ceremony where he stated the goal of the exercise is to consolidate partnerships and facilitate decision-making. “Security challenges force…

ADF STAFF Attacks in West Darfur are awakening fears that the region could return to the violence of its darkest period. Humanitarian groups and international organizations are calling for an intervention as the conflict escalates. In mid-June, a land dispute between two tribes near the town of Kulbus led to the death of more than 100 people and forced thousands to flee. Witnesses and human rights groups say forces controlled by the second-in-command of Sudan’s ruling junta are supporting Arab fighters in the attacks and are heightening the violence. Abkar Altom Adam, secretary-general of the Gimir Shura Council, told the…