ADF

ADF STAFF As a Ghanaian Air Force helicopter thundered overhead, members of the Ghana Navy Special Boat Squadron (SBS) rappelled down to the deck of a ship floating just offshore. With weapons drawn, they began searching the ship for suspected pirates. The assault was a drill — part of annual training exercises for SBS members in partnership with U.S. and Danish militaries. The assault drill and others, such as close-quarter combat and emergency medical training, are designed to strengthen Ghana’s marine security, build its ability to defend its territorial waters and coordinate more closely with its neighbors. “The tripartite collaboration…

ADF STAFF Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba sat silently wearing a red beret and a stern expression in the Ouagadougou television studio on January 24 as Burkina Faso’s military spokesman announced the coup that deposed the country’s democratically elected president. The junta, which called itself “the Patriotic Movement for Safeguarding and Restoration,” seized power, and Damiba was named its president. The spokesman said Damiba cited the country’s failing security as the primary reason for overthrowing President Roch Marc Christian Kaboré. One month later, Damiba’s junta gave him the title of President of Burkina Faso, and with it the job of…

ADF STAFF At least 26 coastal African nations are known to have recently operated open vessel registries or allowed foreign-owned fishing vessels to use various flag schemes to fish in in their waters. This policy lets foreign trawlers collect large quantities of fish with little oversight or repercussions if they violate the law. Advocates are calling for nations to reform and strengthen their flag and registry rules. An April report by Trygg Mat Tracking (TMT) and I.R. Consilium revealed that vessels engaged in illegal fishing commonly fly “flags of convenience.” This lets them use open vessel registries to fish in…

ADF STAFF The smartphone video showing a Chinese mining manager whipping two Rwandan employees about their heads with a piece of rope as they sat with their hands tied behind their backs went viral in August 2021. The video became a scandal. Outraged people closely followed the resulting court case, and the recent history of abuses by Chinese nationals across the continent has come under a microscope. A Rwandan court found Sun Shujun guilty of torture and sentenced him to 20 years in prison on April 20, 2022. Sun had accused the two men of stealing minerals from his company,…

ADF STAFF The Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) officially joined the East African Community (EAC) as the regional bloc’s seventh partner state on March 29. Less than a month later, the EAC voted to establish a regional military force to address the pervasive problem of armed groups that have plagued eastern DRC for decades. The EAC voted to “accelerate the establishment [and urgent deployment] of a regional force to help contain and, where necessary, fight the negative forces,” it said in an April 21 statement. The leaders agreed that all armed groups in the DRC must disarm and “participate…

ADF STAFF Russian Wagner Group mercenaries have been abusing and killing civilians in the Central African Republic (CAR) since 2019, according to a recent report from Human Rights Watch (HRW). The United Nations and several governments say that the Wagner Group, a Russian private military company with close ties to the Kremlin, committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. “There is compelling evidence that Russian-identified forces supporting the Central African Republic’s government have committed grave abuses against civilians with complete impunity,” HRW Crisis and Conflict Director Ida Sawyer said in a statement. “The failure of the Central African Republic government and…

ADF STAFF Brando Brayend Tewuh, a 29-year-old Indonesian crew member aboard a Chinese fishing vessel, was so tired of being beaten and starved that he and three other crew members jumped from the trawler off the coast of Somalia in August 2021. Their attempt to reach shore failed. After floating in the sea for hours, Tewuh and two others were rescued by the boat from which they leapt. Another crew member, Aji Proyogo, is believed to have drowned. “I will never, ever work on a ship again,” Tewuh told This Week in Asia. Stories of mistreatment of workers aboard Chinese…

ADF STAFF In a matter of months, Mali’s relationship with much of the outside world has deteriorated profoundly, while Russia is trying to capitalize on a power vacuum it is helping to create. Experts say it’s all part of the Kremlin’s plan for Africa, using shadowy Wagner Group mercenaries to further its objectives. Recent developments in Mali highlight those plans. Russia was under intense international pressure in April after Wagner fighters were accused of slaughtering hundreds of civilians, the same kind of atrocities the group has been accused of in several other African countries. The French military on April 22…

ADF STAFF As the bloody rivalry between two large terror groups continues to destroy countless lives in northeast Nigeria, both sides are experiencing another kind of loss — desertions. In recent months, thousands of fighters from Boko Haram and its rival splinter group, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), have surrendered to local authorities, weakening the two groups. A report released during an April 7 briefing by the United Nations Security Council’s Counter-Terrorism Committee analyzed the deaths of terrorist leaders that preceded the current wave of defections. “The relatively recent deaths of Abu Musab al-Barnawi of ISWAP, Abubakar Shekau…

ADF STAFF A new study identifies West Africa as one of the world’s most affected regions by labor abuse on vessels involved in illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Conducted by the Stanford University Center for Ocean Solutions, the study used anonymous surveys distributed to experts from seafood companies, research institutions and human rights organizations, combined with satellite-based vessel-tracking data curated by Global Fishing Watch, to identify high-risk regions. The Azores, Argentina, the Falklands Islands and Peru were the other top regions, the study showed. “Surveillance on the high seas is innately challenging, so these data provide a critical first…