ADF

ADF STAFF The new African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM) is expected to differ significantly from previous AU missions in the country. While the previous missions struggled with multiple, sometimes conflicting, roles and expectations, AUSSOM will have a more defined role, according to the Institute for Security Studies (ISS). The African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), for instance, was given less than three years to help the Somali National Army (SNA) defeat the terrorist group al-Shabaab, while AUSSOM has five years to complete its mission. AUSSOM is expected to gradually hand over security responsibilities to Somali…

ADF STAFF The United States has provided a second $5.5 million state-of-the-art Level 2 field hospital to the Ugandan military to help with rapid deployment to regional peacekeeping missions, humanitarian emergencies and medical crises. The 22-bed facility, which meets United Nations specifications, has specialized suites for dental and surgical care and for treating infectious diseases. Ugandan officials said the portable hospital includes equipment for diagnostic imaging, X-rays and eye care. Soldiers from the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces trained extensively at the Uganda Rapid Deployment Capabilities Center in Jinja in October before receiving the hospital. They learned how to set up,…

ADF STAFF The Nigerian Air Force, working as part of Operation Hadarin Daji, killed Zamfara-based bandit leader Kachalla Halilu Sububu on September 12, avenging his deadly 2021 attack on a Katsina military base. “In a decisive joint operation led by three personnel of the Nigerian Air Force [NAF] Special Forces, a notorious bandit, Halilu Sububu, and over 38 terrorists were neutralized during an engagement near Mayanchi on 12 September 2024,” Air Force Group Capt. Kabiru Ali said in a statement, as reported by Nigeria’s Punch newspaper. “The operation was part of an ongoing effort by NAF and ground forces to…

ADF STAFF A new report confirms that the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) has received repeated deliveries of weapons from Iran since December 2023, when the two countries restored diplomatic ties after an eight-year hiatus. Researchers at the Conflict Observatory used open-source documentation to track at least seven military cargo flights from airports in Iran to Port Sudan, the wartime headquarters of the SAF and Sudan’s junta-led government overseen by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. Two other flights are considered “very likely” deliveries because the planes turned off their transponders just before landing in Sudan. The Conflict Observatory tracked flights of the…

ADF STAFF Health, military and government officials from more than 30 African nations have concluded a conference of the African Partnership Outbreak Response Alliance that included a simulated response to a mass casualty event, a first for the annual conference. The alliance, known as APORA, met November 4 to 8 in Cotonou, Benin. The meeting emphasized continued international cooperation, military-to-military engagement, and the need for a permanent APORA headquarters in Africa. The mass casualty simulation included 345 military personnel, first responders and civil protection forces, highlighting the collaboration and structured approach necessary for effective emergency response. “This edition will test,…

ADF STAFF When the al-Qaida-affiliated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) attacked Bamako in September, it marked the first attack inside the Malian capital since 2016. The attack on a military training school and international airport where Russian mercenaries are based killed at least 77 people, mostly young gendarmerie recruits. The terrorists also stuffed burning rags into the engines of presidential jets belonging to the ruling military junta. Afterward, JNIM released a statement saying that the attack was a reprisal for “massacres and slaughters committed by this ruling clique and its Russian allies against our Muslim people.” Wassim Nasr, a Sahel…

ADF STAFF Northern Ghana has emerged as a logistical base from which violent extremist organizations from Burkina Faso launch attacks into other areas as they try to expand farther into West Africa. Terrorists linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group (IS) also use Ghana’s north as a medical base where their injured fighters are treated. According to new reporting by Reuters, Ghanaian authorities are “turning a blind eye” to terrorists crossing over from Burkina Faso to stock up on food, fuel and explosives. While that approach has spared Ghana from the kind of deadly terror attacks that have plagued…

ADF STAFF The Russian Orthodox Church is quietly winning allegiance from priests and parishes from the Patriarchate of Alexandria in Egypt with offers of humanitarian aid, vaccines, infrastructure, schools, hospitals and spiritual patronage. Experts say this is a geopolitical strategy meant to help the Kremlin spreads its influence on the continent amid an ongoing battle within the Orthodox Church over the war in Ukraine. “Most analysts of Russia’s presence in Africa would miss this development,” Bob Wekesa, director of the African Center for the Study of the United States at the University of the Witwatersrand in South Africa, told the…

ADF STAFF The TikTok video spread like an out-of-control fire in October. Dramatic music swelled in the background while the video frantically jumped from clips of security forces in action to police vehicles mobilizing with flashing lights and other scenes of chaos. The voice-over, generated by artificial intelligence, urgently narrated: “Coup d’etat in Côte d’Ivoire! Alassane Ouattara has been ousted from power.” By mid-November the video had been viewed more than 5.9 million times and shared more than 35,000 times on TikTok. Thousands of users lefts comments. “Obviously, this is false since there has been no coup d’état in Côte…

ADF STAFF Sudan’s war is inflaming ethnic tensions across the country and threatening to turn the battle between two military factions into a broader war along tribal lines. “The escalation of war narratives by both sides is fueling ethnically charged rhetoric,” the Advocacy Group for Peace in Sudan (AGPS) said in a statement. The group said that inflammatory claims by the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have spurred dangerous regional and ethnic mobilization. The AGPS compared Sudan’s rising ethnic animosity to the early stages of the Rwandan genocide in 1994. “Sudan stands on the brink,” the…