ADF

Interpol arrested 306 people and seized 1,842 electronic devices across seven African nations in an international operation that targeted perpetrators of cyberattacks and scams. The international police organization worked from November 2024 to February 2025 to target banking, investment and messaging app scams. Operation Red Card sought to disrupt and dismantle cross-border criminal networks that harmed more than 5,000 individuals and businesses. Authorities in Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Togo and Zambia took part in the operation. Interpol worked through its African Joint Operation against Cybercrime. Authorities in Nigeria arrested 130 suspects, including 113 foreigners, who were accused…

Less than two years after Sudan’s civil war began in April 2023, the two warring factions had killed more than 28,700 people, more than a quarter of whom were civilians. Half the population needed humanitarian aid, and nearly a third had fled their homes. Yet before bombs and bullets spilled blood and felled buildings, a hidden element of warfare already was wreaking havoc in Sudan’s cyber realm. Sudan has a history of shutting down internet access dating back to the Omar al-Bashir regime. As citizens protested for his removal in 2019, al-Bashir’s government partnered with Russian mercenaries to spread false…

Dr. Antwi-Boasiako is a cybersecurity expert who has worked in the public and private sectors for more than a decade. In 2011, he founded eCrime Bureau, West Africa’s first digital forensics firm. He served as a cybersecurity expert with the Interpol Global Cybercrime Expert Group and with the Council of Europe’s Global Action on Cybercrime Extended Project. In 2017, he was named Ghana’s National Cybersecurity Advisor and head of the National Cyber Security Centre. In this position, he helped craft Ghana’s Cybersecurity Act, which was passed in 2020. In 2021, he was named director-general of Ghana’s Cyber Security Authority, a…

Photos by Reuters Somalia, which has been engulfed in conflict since 2009, now has two systems struggling to exert control — the established federal, regional and local governments, and the extremist group al-Shabaab. Although fragmented by years of military defeats and infighting among its leaders, the al-Qaida-aligned group remains a major presence in Somalia, where it continues to try to impose its strict system of fundamentalist law. The group generates a tremendous amount of revenue, estimated at $100 million annually, compared to the $300 million collected by the national government. Al-Shabaab’s revenues support a well-armed network of 5,000 to 10,000…

Terror came to Benin in 2019. Sahel-based extremists emerged from Pendjari National Park and kidnapped two French tourists and their guide. Since then, a flood of incursions has bedeviled the country, increasing with each passing year. Benin deployed 3,000 troops to the north under Operation Mirador to prevent militant attacks on civilians, security forces and park rangers in the W-Arly-Pendjari (WAP) Complex, which includes territory in Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger. Sahel-based militants have ramped up attacks on Benin and Togo and crept closer to Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Guinea, Mauritania and Senegal. “The annual number of violent events linked to…

Photo by afp/getty images A Multinational Joint Task Force boat carries people to safety after floods devastated Maiduguri, Nigeria, in September 2024. Nigeria was not the only country where the military responded to destructive floods in 2024. The Kenya Defence Forces deployed in April to rescue those affected by heavy rains. About 300 Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces Soldiers helped search for and evacuate people in the Bulambuli district after a landslide killed at least 28 people in November. Record amounts of rain fell in 27 African countries during the year, killing 2,500 people, displacing 4 million, inundating cropland and killing…

COMMANDER SETH ANTHONY DZAKPASU, GHANA ARMED FORCES | photos by reuters As the threat of violent extremism was growing in the Sahel and West Africa in 2005, U.S. Africa Command sponsored a new exercise. It was designed to tackle the threat head-on by bringing together special operations forces (SOF) from across the region and pairing them with allies from Europe and North America. From its first iteration, which included seven African nations and more than 700 Soldiers, Flintlock has focused on special operations task units and operator level training for SOF. These operators are some of the best of the…

Chief instructors of Command and Staff Colleges from 18 nations met in Kigali, Rwanda, in July for a workshop on improving military training and education, while cultivating a common understanding of emerging threats driven by new technologies. The theme of this year’s African Command and Staff Colleges Chief Instructors Workshop was “The Future of African Military Training and Education: Bridging the Digital Divide.” “The overarching aim of this workshop is to strengthen collaboration through open dialogue and mutual learning,” Brig. Gen. Andrew Nyamvumba, commandant of the Rwanda Defence Force (RDF) Command and Staff College, said in a news release. (RDF…

Terrorists across Africa are using artificial intelligence (AI) to develop propaganda videos and spread disinformation against government agencies. However, governments are turning the same technology against terrorists to predict and deter their activities. As AI becomes an increasingly large part of terrorism and counterterrorism on the continent, the African Union (AU) has proposed a set of steps designed to guide the way nations employ AI across sectors of their societies. “By leveraging AI technologies, governments and security agencies can enhance intelligence, improve surveillance, and disrupt propaganda efforts,” analyst Abraham Ename Minko wrote for the Global Network on Extremism and Technology…

Recent protests in the Central African Republic (CAR) could have the government reconsidering its relationship with the Russian Ministry of Defense. Thousands of people held signs and marched in the streets of the capital, Bangui, on April 4 to rally against the ongoing presence of Russian Wagner Group mercenaries who have guarded President Faustin Archange Touadéra. Wagner fighters have acted as Touadéra’s personal security detail since 2018. They helped him change the constitution by referendum in July 2023, which allows him to stay in power indefinitely. “We’re here to say no to a third term for Faustin Archange Touadéra. But…