ADF

With a rapidly growing online population and historically weak cyber defenses, African nations are on the front line of cyberattacks. That position makes them a warning beacon and a potential model for developing methods to confront such attacks. “Africa has a unique opportunity to lead in combatting new threats, helping to shape the future of cyber defense,” Kerissa Varma, Microsoft’s chief security advisor for Africa, wrote in a recent analysis. Africa’s online infrastructure is bombarded daily with hundreds of thousands of attempted cyberattackswith Ethiopia, Nigeria and South Sudan reporting the most attacks in 2025. South Sudan’s rapidly expanding internet footprint…

A Nigerien rebel group has attacked oil production infrastructure, which could weaken the country’s finances and threaten its ruling junta’s grip on power. Created in 2024, the Patriotic Movement for Freedom and Justice (MPLJ) has gained strength through a series of attacks on Africa’s largest pipeline, which stretches nearly 2,000 kilometers from Niger’s oil-rich eastern deserts to Benin’s coast. The rebels’ primary targets are two Chinese oil companies that represent the main source of income for the junta and its leader, Gen. Abdourahamane Tiani. “Destroying the pipeline means destroying General Tiani,” MPLJ leader Moussa Kounaï told Jeune Afrique magazine for…

The Botswana Defence Force (BDF) in mid-January received nearly $1 million worth of spare parts for its fleet of C-130 Hercules military transport aircraft. The delivery included 26 pallets containing 12,000 items of brand-new maintenance equipment, including seals, hydraulic components, avionics spares, specialized ground support and propeller maintenance equipment. The BDF typically uses the aircraft, widely known as “the workhorse of the skies,” for troop transport, disaster relief, medical evacuation, and to support regional and international peacekeeping deployments. The C-130H is considered one of the most versatile and widely operated military transport aircraft in the world. Consistent access to spare…

The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) captured more than 10 South Sudanese citizens as part of the fight to retake the North Kordofan community of Kazigil in late December 2025. The South Sudanese were fighting on the side of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF), which has taken parts of the Kordofan region on the border with South Sudan in recent months. The involvement of South Sudanese fighters on the side of the RSF prompted the Sudanese government to contact its counterparts in South Sudan regarding its citizens. The SAF has claimed since late 2024 that armed groups from South Sudan…

Forests cover nearly half of Cameroon, but they are being rapidly degraded by illegal logging operations that feed China’s appetite for tropical lumber. Cameroon has granted companies from around the world nearly 100 timber concessions to cut and ship logs legally. However, international observers say that many more logging operations occur unofficially, resulting in a loss of millions of dollars in resources and revenue each year. Cameroonian legislation adopted in 1994 regulates logging through quotas and requires companies to reforest logged areas. Illegal logging is undercutting all of that, according to analysts. “While observers focus their attention on legal logging,…

An ethnic militia that was recruited, trained and armed by Russia’s Wagner Group PMC has turned against the government of Central African Republic’s President Faustin-Archange Touadéra. Fighting between the Azandé Ani Kpi Gbè (AAKG) militia and the Central African Armed Forces (FACA), backed by Russian mercenaries, has flared in the remote southeastern Haut-Mbomou prefecture since the country’s December 28, 2025 presidential election. That day, the AAKG seized Bambouti, 3 kilometers from the border with South Sudan. “The choice of this date was no coincidence,” researcher Fulbert Ngodji told Radio France Internationale (RFI) for a January 12 article. “By attacking symbols…

Several ships left a port in Kaliningrad, a Russian enclave between Lithuania and Poland, in August 2024 and sailed off on a mission called “The Great African Expedition.” Launched by Russia’s Federal Agency for Fisheries (Rosrybolovstvo), it was touted as a scientific expedition ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin to map depleted fish stocks alongside African researchers. Analysts, however, say the expedition is part of Russia’s broader strategy of influence and resource capture. The Kremlin does not want simply to count fish; it wants to catch them in African exclusive economic zones (EEZs). This is important to Moscow, as it…

Islamic State militants approached a neighborhood on the outskirts of Mocímboa da Praia in northern Mozambique on January 25, seeking to kill a member of the Maconde local militia. Failing to find him, they abducted his young son. Two days earlier, members of the Islamic State Mozambique (ISM) reportedly terrorized people on and around several small islands just off the coast. They looted, stole a motorboat and kidnapped fishermen, demanding a ransom of 50,000 meticais ($784) each. “My brother was there on the islands night fishing, and he and his colleagues were taken off their boat by the insurgents,” a…

In mid-January, Nigerian troops serving in Operation Hadin Kai raided an Islamic State West Africa Province hideout in the Timbuktu Triangle in Borno State. As the troops advanced on the base, armed drones attacked them. A new report by The Premium Times news outlet suggests that terrorist group, also known as ISWAP, plans to increase its use of armed drones against Nigerian military forces in the northeast. The report appeared as Nigerian troops are increasing pressure on ISWAP across Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states. On several occasions in January, troops fought with ISWAP forces and cleared abandoned hideouts, according to…

Aerial photos show that a small airport in southeast Libya has become a key transit point for arms and supplies to the Rapid Support Forces paramilitary group in Sudan, according to government and intelligence officials. Satellite images show that the airport in Kufrah has been renovated and expanded in the past year, Reuters reported, with a steep increase in cargo flights that coincided with the growth of the Sudanese paramilitary group, also known as the RSF. The RSF has been fighting the Sudanese Armed Forces, known as the SAF, since April 2023. The two sides are fighting over control of…