ADF

ADF STAFF Inside his shop in northern Côte d’Ivoire, 25-year-old tailor Bassina Konate demonstrates his expertise with the tools of his trade — a sewing machine, scissors, cloth and measuring tape. His business in the town of Kong is open every day despite a scarcity of customers. Underneath a calm, stoic demeanor, Konate expresses his frustration over the connected issues of rampant unemployment and his country’s response to the threat of terrorism that has been creeping south from the Sahel. Kong is less than 100 kilometers from the border with Burkina Faso. “There is not enough work here,” he told…

ADF STAFF Emmanuel Essien, a 28-year-old Ghanaian fisheries observer, was proud of his work, which included reporting illegal fishing tactics aboard foreign fishing trawlers. His diligence may have cost him his life. Essien was on board the Chinese trawler Meng Xin 15 when he captured video of the crew engaging in saiko, the illegal transfer of fish from a trawler to a large canoe. Two weeks later, on July 5, 2019, he went missing while working on the same vessel. His report on the video he captured included this sentence: “I humbly plead with the police to investigate further,” The Guardian…

ADF STAFF Russia’s ongoing war with Ukraine has caused grain and fertilizer prices to skyrocket across Africa. About 40% of wheat consumed on the continent comes from the warring nations, driving unprecedented food insecurity and raising the risk of famine. African Union (AU) Chairperson and Senegalese President Macky Sall confronted Putin about the crisis during an in-person meeting in Russia on June 3. “I have come to see you, to ask you to be aware that our countries, even far from the theater (of war), are the victims of this economic crisis,” Sall told Putin, according to a Reuters report.…

ADF STAFF China commands the world’s largest distant-water fishing fleet (DWF), has the world’s worst illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing record, and its crews are known to abuse foreign workers, according to the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF). An EJF report released in March offers the first global analysis of China’s DWF. It was based on an analysis of China’s own limited fisheries data, which the nation made available in recent years. China’s fishing fleet has targeted African waters, especially the Gulf of Guinea, for decades. “Chinese vessels have the highest rates (not just overall case numbers) of alleged IUU…

ADF STAFF There are signs of progress in the 19-month civil war that has thrown Ethiopia into chaos and displaced millions. A ceasefire brokered in March mostly has held, and humanitarian aid convoys are reaching areas affected by drought and famine. In May, African Union envoy Olusegun Obasanjo negotiated the release of 4,200 prisoners of war in what was termed a “confidence-building exercise.” “There is now a real opportunity for political and diplomatic resolution of the conflict,” Obasanjo said earlier this year. Despite this, major barriers remain to a lasting peace. Experts say if Ethiopia is to avoid a return…

ADF STAFF The East African Community is moving ahead with plans to create a regional military force to deploy to the troubled eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The DRC officially joined the East African Community, or EAC, as the regional bloc’s seventh partner state on March 29. Other member countries are Burundi, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda. Less than a month later, the EAC voted to establish a regional military force to address armed groups that have plagued eastern DRC for decades. Kenya and Uganda already have troops fighting rebels in eastern DRC.…

ADF STAFF Coastal states are sounding the alarm that a lack of resources to patrol waters, combined with limited surveillance of vessel activity, are enabling illegal fishing and leading to food insecurity and the loss of income for millions of people. Those facts were underscored during a seminar led by the Ministerial Conference on Fisheries Cooperation among African States Bordering the Atlantic Ocean (ATLAFCO) in Morocco in May. Illegal fishing “negatively affects the livelihoods of people who depend on fisheries in the African coastal countries,” Abdennaji Laamrich, ATLAFCO’s head of cooperation and information systems, said in a report by Ghanaian…

ADF STAFF The militant rebel group March 23 Movement, known as M23, recently launched its biggest offensive in a decade in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Tens of thousands of civilians have fled the resurgence of violence. The group gained international attention when it sparked eastern DRC’s last big rebellion in 2012 before its defeat months later. “We are displaced, we are fleeing the clashes that took place,” Rutshuru district resident Alexis Sikuli told AfricaNews in late May 2022. “Following this situation, we are afraid. That is why we are going to Kibati near Goma [capital of the…

ADF STAFF Islamic State attacks in the Sahel have shifted in recent months toward towns along the Mali-Niger border. Civilians continue to pay with their lives. “Armed men arrived on motorbikes and shot at everything which moved,” a local official said to France 24 about attacks on three Nigerien villages — Intazayene, Bakoarate and Wistane — where terrorists killed at least 137 people in late March. Hundreds have been killed this year, and nearly half a million Nigeriens have fled the violence. In Mali, the United Nations peacekeeping force MINUSMA responded by deploying two units to the tri-border area where…

ADF STAFF Facing the threat of extremist groups encroaching into its northern border regions, Ghana recently announced its “See Something, Say Something” campaign urging citizens to report suspicious activity that may be connected. “Launching this campaign is to ensure we have all-inclusive, society involvement,” government spokesman Palgrave Boakye-Danquah told Joy News television. “The highest level of security, especially modern-day security, is to involve the citizens.” Ghana’s leaders are ratcheting up security as Sahel-based extremists expand their operations into coastal countries. Ghana’s neighbors, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire and Togo, have already experienced extremist attacks originating in Sahelian countries. “The spread makes the…