ADF

ADF STAFF Nigeria’s so-called Yahoo Boys begin learning the tricks of online fraud early. They’re often as young as 12 when they are recruited into the country’s cybercrime training network known as “hustle kingdom.” By the time they graduate from high school, many Yahoo Boys are skilled at deceiving online victims through a variety of schemes, from scams that extort victims through online dating sites to phishing emails designed to trick recipients into opening their computer networks to attacks. “Tackling this issue requires urgent attention at both local and global levels,” Suleman Lazarus, a Nigerian cybercrime expert, wrote in The…

ADF STAFF Sudan’s warring sides are turning their attention to an institution they see as a common enemy: the country’s independent media. Cyberattacks have become the weapon of choice for the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) as they seek to shut down media outlets to control Sudan’s information space. “This war is largely a media war driven by misinformation,” Montaser Abdelwahid, editor-in-chief of Sudan-based Medameek, told Radio Dabanga. “They are killing the truth by obstructing reports on the horrific attacks taking place.” Radio Dabanga is an independent news outlet covering Sudan from its base in…

ADF STAFF The United Nations recently marked an important anniversary on the continent — 25 years of actively protecting civilians with its peacekeeping missions. On October 22, 1999, the U.N. Security Council ended its observer mission in Sierra Leone and established a new mission, UNAMSIL, with a new mandate permitting its troops to use force. It represented a major shift in the U.N.’s approach to peacekeeping. The Security Council in 1999 outlined how UNAMSIL troops were mandated to “take the necessary action in the discharge of its mandate to ensure the security and freedom of movement of its personnel and,…

ADF STAFF Tedla Hirigo, 17, worked as a street vendor in Adama city in Ethiopia’s Oromia region on November 11 when police detained him. “When I visited the station in the evening, officers told me that he would be sent to a military training camp unless I paid 30,000 birr for his release,” Tedla’s mother told Ethiopian newspaper The Addis Standard. She said Tedla was her family’s primary source of income. “He was raised without a father, and we don’t have the financial means to pay such a large sum.” Multiple sources report that the federal government is forcibly conscripting…

ADF STAFF Somali President Hassan Sheik Mohamud has been so focused on his rift with Ethiopia over its port deal with Somaliland that he might be leaving an opening for al-Shabaab, according to Selam Tadesse Demissie, a researcher at the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). Ethiopia agreed in January to recognize the independence of Somaliland in exchange for the use of the Berbera port on the Gulf of Aden. “It’s like Christmas for al-Shabaab actually,” Demissie told PassBlue, an independent news organization that covers the United Nations. “The moment you ease off in the fight against Al Shabaab, it remobilizes, it…

ADF STAFF The arrest of a shadowy political operative in Chad is shedding light on Russia’s efforts to interfere in the domestic affairs of African countries. On September 19, 2024, Maxim Shugaley was detained at the airport in N’Djamena along with two Russian colleagues and one from Belarus. Shugaley is a notorious, globetrotting figure whose organization, “The Foundation for the Defense of National Values,” has close ties to the Russian mercenary Wagner Group and its late founder, Yevgeny Prigozhin. He was released by Chadian authorities after six days and has now returned to Russia. In recent years, Shugaley has been…

ADF STAFF In the town of Kamituga, in the heavily forested eastern reaches of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, artisanal gold mining is big business. Thousands of people in South Kivu province work in vast open-pit mines in the faint hope of making a few dollars a day. Chinese companies dominate the industry nationwide. In stark contrast to small-scale miners, Chinese companies take a more industrial approach to gold-mining operations, using heavy machinery such as mechanized diggers and boat dredges. “[We] don’t have the same means,” Felicien Mikalano, the president of a local association for artisanal diggers, told Agence…

ADF STAFF Heavily armed M23 rebels sat in trucks and on motorcycles at a checkpoint along the Sake-Kilolirwe-Kitshanga road in the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. They stopped every traveler, took stock of their inventory, demanded a tax payment and issued a hand-written receipt. In a recent report, a cohort of researchers estimated that M23’s extortion of civilians along this single trade route could amount to $69,500 per month. “Control of roads is a significant strategic issue for obvious military reasons, but also for financing armed groups,” the authors wrote. “The M23 made significant progress in…

ADF STAFF Members of the Armed Forces of Mauritania huddled close as their vessel sliced through the Mediterranean Sea toward a ship on the horizon. Once beside the ship, the military forces boarded it, one by one. With guns drawn, they searched the vessel before arresting its captain and confiscating a cache of weapons. The Mauritanian forces were participating in a visit, board, search and seizure drill during the 19th iteration of Phoenix Express, a 12-day, multinational maritime security exercise hosted this year by Tunisia, sponsored by U.S. Africa Command and led by U.S. Naval Forces Africa. The goals of…

ADF STAFF Sexual violence against women and girls of all ages is rampant in war-torn Sudan, including rape, gang rape, forced marriages and sexual slavery. A new United Nations report found that the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) militia is using sexual violence as a deliberate tactic “intending to terrorize civilians.” “The majority of rape and sexual and gender-based violence was committed by the RSF,” the report, published on October 29 by the Independent International Fact-Finding Mission for the Sudan, stated. “[It’s] part of a pattern aimed at terrorizing and punishing civilians for perceived links with opponents and suppressing any opposition…