ADF

A security specialist says that the terrorist group al-Shabaab and other extremist organizations are learning to move faster as they refine their efforts to target communities and security forces. Security expert Ibrahim Yanaya told intelligence chiefs from 70 countries at an April 2026 meeting in Kenya that militant groups linked to terrorist movements are changing how they operate, with new pressure points that could affect countries across the region, including Kenya. Yanaya, a deputy project director with the International Crisis Group, said the shift matters because extremist networks have continued to find ways to move faster than security forces, keeping…

Experts are warning that China’s recently launched Global Governance Initiative (GGI) represents a threat to developing nations by promoting authoritarianism through digital surveillance and repression. The adoption of “techno-authoritarianism,” defined as the use of digital information technology by governments to surveil, repress, and manipulate populations, poses significant risks to African nations, primarily by undermining democratic processes, human rights and long-term political stability. Retired Col. DCS Mayal, a former intelligence officer in the Indian Army, noted a severe lack of transparency that pervades China’s governance model, saying that the initiative transforms soft power into “invisible sharp edges.” “GGI strategies cultivate Global…

Moroccan and Spanish authorities on March 25 collaborated to arrest three suspected Islamic State group members: two in Tangier, one on Mallorca, Spain’s largest island. The suspect in Spain is accused of planning a solo attack, while the suspects in Morocco allegedly provided funding and logistical support to fighters linked to the Islamic State group in Somalia (ISSOM) and other IS branches in the Sahel region, the Morocco World News newspaper reported. Analysts say ISSOM, in particular, is keen to expand beyond its base in the country’s autonomous Puntland region through propaganda, online radicalization and recruitment efforts from its Al-Karrar…

In February 2025, Morocco’s Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations arrested 12 men connected to Islamic State-Sahel Province during raids across the country, disrupting a terror plot to bomb financial and tourist sites. The raid turned up Islamic State flags, cash, nail bombs, dynamite, guns and knives. It also uncovered evidence that the plot had been inspired and financed by a member of Islamic State-Sahel Province (ISSP), which seeks to expand beyond its base in the Liptako-Gourma region where Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger meet. In recent years, the central leadership of Islamic State (IS) has shifted its attention and resources…

Two Ugandans recently were killed fighting for Russia in Ukraine, adding to the mounting toll of African casualties in that conflict. The two men, Michael Atuhaire and Ashiraf Damulira, are among nearly 1,500 Africans fighting for Russia, often after being lured to the country with promises of lucrative work or higher education. Many of those recruits have come from Kenya and South Africa. Others have come from Cameroon, Ghana and elsewhere on the continent. Atuhaire and Damulira were identified in an investigation into Russia’s recruiting practices by the Swiss NGO INPACT. The group worked with the Ukrainian project I Want…

Fifteen African countries shut down their citizens’ internet access a total of 36 times in 2025. The shutdowns were often in response to political unrest, national exams or armed conflict, according to a report by internet advocacy groups #KeepItOn Coalition and Access Now. Tanzania led the list, blocking internet access eight times during the year, including a five-day shutdown around elections in late October during which government forces cracked down on protesters, according to the report, titled “Rising Repression Meets Global Resistance.” Internal conflict led the shutdown list for the third year in a row, according to the report. In…

The recent attack on a Malian Army base near the community of Aguelhok was the latest example of insurgent groups in the country using armed drones against government and paramilitary forces. The attack by the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) in early April targeted a military base near the community used by the Malian Army (FAMa) and fighters working for Russia’s Africa Corps. The attack was the latest in a series of FLA assaults on regional military bases. In late March, the group attacked a joint FAMa-Africa Corps base in nearby Anéfis. A few days before, they launched their first attack…

Yusuf was 5 years old on the night that Islamic State group terrorists on motorcycles raided his village and took him to raise as one of their own. By the time he was 10, he had fought against the Nigerian Army and the rival terrorist group known as Boko Haram. After five years of combat with the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), the 15-year-old had been hardened to the sight of death and destruction. He explained how young children are indoctrinated into combat: “You want to wear the uniform,” he told British newspaper The Times for a March 13…

Secret meetings, fake documents, smear campaigns and paid local influencers. These were some of the tools that Russian agents used to conduct covert influence operations in Southern Africa during election campaigns between 2019 and 2025, seeking to manipulate political outcomes and keep pro-Moscow governments in power. A network referred to as “The Company” ran operations that targeted Madagascar, Namibia and South Africa, according to The Continent, a pan-African digital newspaper based in South Africa. “Russian operatives engineered narrative-change campaigns across Africa, paid for media coverage and drafted policies for governments,” The Continent wrote in its February 14 edition. “We have…

Al-Shabaab’s attack last October on the Godka Jilacow prison in Mogadishu took place with the help of foreign fighters from across East Africa, the terrorist group reported in a recently released video. The attack on one of the country’s most secure prisons sent shockwaves through the region. Al-Shabaab claimed to have killed more than 40 Somali security personnel. In contrast, the government described the attack as a failure in which the attackers died. It appears that some of those attackers came from Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania, according to the al-Shabaab video. Al-Shabaab has a history of recruiting fighters from neighboring…