ADF

ADF STAFF Although the kidnapping of 276 students from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok led to global outrage, the shocking practice continues. Schoolchildren across northern Nigeria have become pawns in a thriving industry for kidnappers seeking attention and money. In just the first three months of 2021, extremists kidnapped more than 800 students and their teachers in six events across four states. Heavily armed men have attacked boarding schools and universities, forcing the students into nearby forests to hold them for ransom. During a kidnapping at Greenfield University, in Kaduna State, the kidnappers killed five hostages when their…

ADF STAFF Companies operating in Ghana’s trawl fishing industry must reapply for fishing licenses to continue working in the country’s waters. Ghana’s Fisheries Commission gave the notice after the country was issued a second yellow card from the European Union (EU), which determined that the country’s level of development and engagement against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing was inadequate. Vessels that must reapply for licenses to fish in Ghana include industrial fishing trawlers, which largely are responsible for decimating Ghana’s small pelagic fish populations, such as sardinella, which has dropped 80% in the past two decades, according to the…

ADF STAFF A wave of recent attacks by Islamist terrorists in northern Côte d’Ivoire indicate that the country’s worst fears are coming true: The bloody Sahel conflict is spreading to West Africa’s coastal states. Militants have launched at least seven attacks in 2021 near the border with Burkina Faso, a neighboring country to the north beset by frequent Islamist attacks. Since 2015, more than 1,300 Burkinabe have been killed, and more than a million have fled their homes. Violent extremist organizations have been pushing for years to move south toward the Gulf of Guinea and some of Africa’s fastest-growing economies,…

ADF STAFF In February 2020, the leaders of terror groups in the Sahel gathered in central Mali for a rare face-to-face meeting. According to French intelligence, the leaders of al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb; the Group for Support of Islam and Muslims, known by its Arabic abbreviation JNIM; and the Macina Liberation Front discussed a shared objective: expansion. They intended to expand toward the Gulf of Guinea, and one of the first countries in their crosshairs would be Côte d’Ivoire. It did not take long for the plan to produce deadly results. In June 2020, extremists stormed a security post…

ADF STAFF Mozambique is getting some backup in its yearslong battle against Islamist terrorists in the northern province of Cabo Delgado. Amid concerns that the conflict could expand and engulf the region, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) announced the creation of a military force “to be deployed in support of Mozambique to combat terrorism and acts of violent extremism.” Leaders of the 16-nation group met June 23 for an emergency summit in Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, where they drafted a brief statement that was short on details, such as how many troops would be used and when they will mobilize.…

ADF STAFF The European Union in May issued Ghana a “yellow card” after concluding that the country’s level of development and engagement against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing was inadequate. A yellow card is a warning that sanctions may be imposed if the country does not improve its efforts to halt IUU fishing, which has decimated Ghana’s small pelagic fish populations, such as sardinella, which have dropped 80% in the past two decades, according to the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF). The yellow card initiates a formal dialogue in which the EU and Ghana collaborate to solve issues of concern.…

ADF STAFF With piracy increasing in the waters of West Africa, Nigeria recently launched its Deep Blue Project, a multipronged approach to confronting piracy in the Gulf of Guinea. The $195 million project brings together a mix of ships, aircraft and drones to patrol the busy shipping lanes off Nigeria’s coast. It will identify potential problem areas and respond quickly to piracy. It comes after the Suppression of Piracy and Other Maritime Offences Act passed by Nigerian legislators in 2019 that strengthened the state’s ability to tackle piracy. “This assemblage of new maritime security assets comes at a critical time when global discussions…

ADF STAFF Every time the Veracruz, a 108-meter refrigerated cargo ship, crossed the sea border from Namibia to Angola, it seemed to disappear. Possibly engaged in illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, its captain simply turned off its automatic identification system (AIS) tracking signal so authorities wouldn’t know its location. Known as “going dark,” the practice is especially common among trawlers engaged in transshipment, or the illegal transfer of fish from one vessel to another, which the Veracruz seemed to be involved in, according to a report by E&T, an engineering and technology magazine. IUU fishing costs West African nations $2.3…

The United Nations Mission in South Sudan (UNMISS) is a peacekeeping operation established at the time of South Sudan’s independence in July 2011. In January 2017, David Shearer of New Zealand became head of the mission and served for more than four years until April 15, 2021. Shearer spent nearly 20 years working for the U.N., managing aid programs to Somalia, Rwanda, Liberia, Kosovo, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Iraq. ADF spoke with Shearer by phone in March 2021. The interview has been edited to fit this format. ADF: You live and work in South Sudan. What’s the mission like? SHEARER: It’s…

Mahamadou Issoufou spoke at the opening of the Extraordinary Session of the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) Authority of Heads of State and Government on April 23, 2020, via videoconference. He was president of the Republic of Niger and chairman of the ECOWAS authority at the time. His speech has been edited to fit this format. A few months ago, no one could imagine that everything would stop so quickly: work, the economy, social life. No one could imagine that all land, sea and air borders to all countries of the world would be closed. These measures were…