ADF

The modern incarnation of fighters for hire in Africa, known as private military companies (PMCs), such as Russia’s Wagner Group, now the Africa Corps — trade security guarantees and counterterrorism pledges for money and natural resource concessions, especially in the Sahel. Now “a more decentralized and entrepreneurial phenomenon has emerged: the rise of jihadist private military contractors,” according to an article by Aries D. Russell for Aries Intelligence. “These are seasoned foreign fighters who offer tactical training, battlefield support, and operational consulting to extremist groups, sometimes for money, often for ideology.” Russell says that trained fighters and consultants are showing…

The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) is working to improve the serviceability rate of its fleet to 90% by the fourth quarter of the year. The serviceability push is part of a broader emphasis on self-reliance and building a robust maintenance culture in the Air Force. The current serviceability rate is 73%, and 90% is considered a high standard. “Mission success in contemporary air operations is directly tied to the availability, airworthiness, and sustained performance of aircraft platforms,” Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Hasan Bala Abubakar, said during the opening remarks at the 2025 Aircraft Engineering Conference in Abuja. Abubakar…

Russian authorities recently demanded that the Central African Republic (CAR) end its yearslong relationship with the Wagner Group and replace those mercenaries with the state-run Africa Corps, a deal that includes building a Russian military base in the country. The demand is the latest demonstration of Russia’s ongoing campaign to exert political and military influence across multiple African countries while also extracting valuable minerals, oil and other resources for its own benefit — all while declaring that Russia is different from the European countries that colonized Africa. “Russia’s anti-colonial crusade belies its efforts to advance its own political and economic…

Across the continent several insurgencies and conflicts have dragged on for years, some for decades. But there is another battle happening at home, where families of Soldiers who were killed are struggling and need support. Violent conflicts throughout Africa have led to a significant increase in the number of military widows and orphans. In northeast Nigeria, Boko Haram terrorists have killed more than 36,000 people and displaced 2.2 million others since they began their insurgency in 2009. Fisayo Ajala and Lindy Heinecken, social anthropology researchers with Stellenbosch University in South Africa, spoke with military widows in Nigeria and reported their…

The Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) terror group stormed a Malian military base in Boulkessi at dawn June 1 and opened fire. Hours later, online videos showed celebrating JNIM fighters stepping over the bodies of dead soldiers. The terrorists claimed they had killed more than 100 troops and captured 20. According to The Arab Weekly, the massacre was one of more than a dozen deadly attacks by JNIM on military outposts and towns across Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger in May and June. The group claimed it had killed more than 400 soldiers in those assaults. “The offensive has produced…

China has an extensive record of attempting to gain power and influence in Africa. Its media strategies seek to position it positively in the minds of nations and their people. It trains African military and police forces in the image of its own party-oriented model. Its professional military education centers instill its philosophy that “the party controls the gun.” As these efforts continue, China is working to deepen its influence through the soft, subtle power of think tanks, in which ideas can join with political, security and economic policies in “shaping the global discourse” in China’s favor and “enhancing its…

Security analysts are warning that internal strife between Somalia’s federal government and regional states is undermining the country’s counterinsurgency strategy and opening opportunities for terrorist groups. Al-Shabaab has launched a broad offensive in 2025, taking control of dozens of towns and villages in regions around Mogadishu, the increasingly isolated capital. “The group’s advances have taken place against a backdrop of Somalia’s increasingly fragmented domestic political landscape,” the Soufan Center think tank wrote in a July 24 brief. “Ongoing power struggles between the federal government of Somalia and member states like Puntland and Jubaland have undermined coordination and counterterrorism efforts.” The…

Ghana is strengthening its northern border by building forward operating bases and deploying troops to a troubled town. In a speech during a Government Accountability Series in July in Accra, Ghana’s then-Minister of Defence Dr. Edward Omane Boamah announced the plan, noting that terror groups are gaining ground in Burkina Faso and are determined to push south. “If the terrorists overcome the system in Burkina Faso, Ghana becomes the next target,” Boamah said. “And that is what makes managing the situation in Burkina Faso and its environs very, very important. Because it will be one of the entry points.” Tragically,…

A terrorist group that dominates the Lake Chad region collects about $191 million annually in taxes it imposes on farmers, livestock owners and fishermen, according to a new report by an independent nonprofit news organization. The New Humanitarian report compares the collections by the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) with those of the Borno State government in Nigeria’s northeast, where the terrorists operate. The study says Borno State collected $18.4 million in 2024, less than a 10th of ISWAP’s proceeds. The reported $191 million does not include revenue from other areas in Nigeria, earnings from kidnapping, or reward payments…

The gruesome killing of 16 men by an angry mob as they traveled through the city of Uromi in southern Nigeria has brought the problem of what’s called “jungle justice” into greater focus. The men reportedly were on a long journey north for Eid al-Fitr celebrations, but a group of vigilantes accosted them, thinking that the men were kidnappers or bandits. Their crime was traveling with homemade Dane guns, long-barreled flintlock muskets, Nigerian journalist Gbenga Aborowa said. “Sixteen lives lost in the most horrific way possible — not after a fair trial, not after evidence was presented,” he said in…