ADF

ADF STAFF Shortly before war broke out between the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April 2023, a different battle began online led by hackers affiliated with the Russian-backed Anonymous Sudan. In January 2023, Anonymous Sudan launched targeted attacks against computers across Europe, the Middle East and North America. Known as distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, the tactic is designed to cripple specific computer networks by overloading them with fake incoming traffic. The hackers targeted hospitals, online companies and even Israel’s missile alert system. While Anonymous Sudan portrays itself as a Sudanese nationalist…

ADF STAFF India’s diplomatic engagements on the continent are increasing, and defense has emerged as a key area of cooperation. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi visited Nigeria in November 2024, marking the first visit by an Indian prime minister to the country in 17 years. During the visit, Modi and Nigerian President Bola Tinubu pledged increased collaboration in counterterrorism, intelligence sharing and maritime security. This aims to help both countries address growing threats in the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Guinea. The countries share a strong history of partnership, as both navies have taken part in 47 rounds of…

ADF STAFF Chaos continues to reign in many parts of Mali, as extremist militant groups terrorize civilians and clash with government forces and Russian mercenaries on a near-daily basis. Following up on a brazen attack in September against the ruling military junta in Mali’s capital, Bamako, the al-Qaida-affiliated alliance of terrorist groups called Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) is pushing to expand its areas of control. JNIM seized another town in the Timbuktu region, Léré, on November 29 and has since kept it isolated — a familiar tactic that the group has used to choke local economies, thwart the movements…

ADF STAFF Ethnic Arab fighters with Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) committed dozens of war crimes against civilian residents of two communities in South Kordofan state while fighting government forces, according to a recent analysis by Human Rights Watch. Satellite imagery and interviews with survivors documented the RSF’s onslaught against the communities of Habila and Fayu, both populated by non-Arabic ethnic Nuba people. The attacks in the first three months of 2024 killed at least 56 civilians. RSF fighters are also accused of raping women and looting and burning homes in both communities. Satellite images show that since the…

ADF STAFF Critics are accusing a Chinese gold-mining company of threatening a protected forest in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with toxic pollution. Kimia Mining operates in the Okapi Wildlife Reserve. A World Heritage Site, it is home to the endangered okapi, which resemble a small giraffe with a short neck; 17 species of primates and 376 species of birds. The reserve spans more than 13,000 square kilometers in the northeastern Ituri Province, near the borders of South Sudan and Uganda. It is part of the Congo Basin, a carbon sink that helps mitigate climate change. It is also…

ADF STAFF As Cyclone Chido swept ashore in northern Mozambique on December 15, it slung winds of 120 to 260 kph, doused Nampula and Cabo Delgado provinces in heavy rainfall, and destroyed homes, schools and other key infrastructure. The six-hour siege was devastating to a region already beset by more than seven years of insurgent violence at the hands of Islamic State (IS) group affiliate Ahl al-Sunna wal-Jama’a (ASWJ), known colloquially as al-Shabaab. As of December 31, the cyclone had killed at least 120 people in Mozambique. “When the cyclone came, I thought I was going to die. It was…

ADF STAFF Egyptian Foreign Minister Badr Abdelatty in late December 2024 announced that Egypt will contribute troops to the new African Union Support and Stabilization Mission in Somalia (AUSSOM). The mission replaces the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), which ended December 31. AUSSOM is the 10th AU-led peacekeeping operation on the continent, as African governments and regional organizations increasingly handle security responsibilities once assumed by the United Nations. The most recent U.N. mission launched on the continent was in the Central African Republic in 2014.  As Obi Anyadike wrote in The New Humanitarian, U.N. missions traditionally have deployed with all-party…

ADF STAFF Members of the Nigerian and French navies responded by air and sea to a pirate attack in the Gulf of Guinea in late November. They boarded a ship with their guns drawn and searched for criminals and hostages. The simulated maritime security exercise was part of Crocodile Lift 2024, a three-day exercise that focused on countering piracy, sea robbery and crude oil theft in the Gulf of Guinea. Less than two weeks before, both navies participated in the Grand African Navy Exercise for Maritime Operations (NEMO) 2024. Nigerian Navy Rear Adm. Shehu Gombe, the flag officer commanding, Naval Doctrine…

ADF STAFF The Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) began initiatives to develop career paths for noncommissioned officers after it began rebuilding in the wake of the country’s devastating civil war, which ended in 2003. A milestone was reached in mid-December 2024 when 40 students completed a nine-week pilot course at the newly established Noncommissioned Officer Academy at the AFL’s Armed Forces Training Center at Camp Ware, Liberia. Each branch of the AFL was represented, and three female NCOs were among the graduates. “I cannot overemphasize the importance of professional education in the military,” the AFL’s Command Sgt. Maj. Plazian B.…

ADF STAFF Richard Kanu served in Sierra Leone’s military for more than 10 years, but nothing prepared him for the Russian army, which he says he was tricked into joining. As a migrant in St. Petersburg, he applied for a job by signing some Russian-language paperwork. He didn’t realize he had signed a contract for military service until he arrived at a base in Rostov-on-Don, just outside Ukraine. “They loaded us into a truck and I found myself in Donetsk,” he told the Kyiv Independent news website in 2024. “They said the contract you signed was to go to war.”…