ADF

ADF STAFF The captains of industrial fishing vessels Friendship 806 and Friendship 888 had no idea they were being watched. The trawlers were anchored overnight just outside Sierra Leone’s inshore exclusion zone (IEZ) reserved for artisanal fishermen. At first light, they made their way into the prohibited area dragging their nets in the water. Sailing through waters full of small-scale artisanal pirogues, they soon were intercepted by two of Sea Shepherd Global’s rigid-hull inflatable boats, which carried gun-toting Sailors from the Sierra Leonean Navy. “We’d been watching them on radar all night,” Peter Hammarstedt, Sea Shepherd’s director of campaigns, told…

ADF STAFF A large trawler shined its huge, stadium-style lights into the deep waters of the western Indian Ocean. The lights were meant to attract tuna and squid, but the trawler was using illegal driftnets — banned 30 years ago by the United Nations — and these nets hauled in sharks and manta rays about 500 miles off Somalia’s coast. Driftnets hang vertically from flotation devices dragged by fishing boats and can scoop up indiscriminate amounts of marine life. In mid-April, Greenpeace released a report on the use of driftnets after spending two weeks tracking fishing vessels in the region.…

ADF STAFF Russia’s Wagner Group fighters broke the cease-fire in Libya’s civil war when they recently flew military aircraft over the city of Sirte, according to The Libya Observer. On April 10, observers on the ground posted video on social media of a MiG jet streaking across the sky above the city despite the cease-fire that started in October 2020 and the creation of a Government of National Unity in March 2021. The Wagner Group continues to support Gen. Khalifa Haftar, whose military forces served the eastern government over the past seven years. Haftar is not part of the Government…

ADF STAFF In the presence of violent Islamist extremism in the Sahel region, efforts are underway to protect young people from the growing threats of recruitment and radicalization. Radio Jeunesse Sahel, which translates to Sahel youth radio, was established April 12 as part of a partnership between the International Organization of La Francophonie (OIF) and the G5 Sahel, a regional cooperation effort for development and security among Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger. “It’s a radio station that is going to be of great importance,” Burkinabe Minister of Foreign Affairs Alpha Barry said to reporters at a ceremony in…

ADF STAFF Anger at the harm caused by fishmeal factories in The Gambia turned violent in March when protesters burned down a police station in Sanyang and torched the Chinese-owned Nessim Fishing and Fish Processing Co. fishmeal factory. Protesters were angry about the murder of a Gambian man, Gibril Ceesay, who was stabbed by a fish factory worker, police said. Protesters turned their frustration toward the factory, which they blame for polluting the environment and attracting foreign industrial trawlers to fish illegally in local waters, where fish stocks are in rapid decline. Police charged 22 young people with crimes related…

ADF STAFF A recent terror attack on Palma, a strategic port town in northern Mozambique, left dozens of Mozambican troops and civilians dead. It also raised the country’s profile with the Islamic State group (IS) and other terrorists around the world. The group behind the attack is Ansar al-Sunna, but locals refer to it as “al-Shabaab,” even though it has no links to the Somalia-based terror group of the same name. IS has lost territory and power in Syria and Iraq in recent years but has made steady inroads in Africa, especially in Mozambique. This could inspire supporters worldwide to…

ADF STAFF Three years after Russia’s Wagner Group began arriving in the Central African Republic, international observers have raised concerns about executions, torture and other actions by the group. They also are questioning its interactions with United Nations peacekeepers. Wagner Group contractors now are part of the fighting between the FACA, the national armed forces, and the rebel groups known as the Coalition of Patriots for Change (CPC), which earlier this year controlled as much as 80% of the country. Fighting intensified after the December 27, 2020, presidential election that saw President Faustin-Archange Touadéra win a second five-year term. Touadéra…

ADF STAFF The gun-toting men arrived on motorbikes outside the boys’ secondary school in Kankara, Nigeria. They shot the school guard and roused frightened children from their beds. The attackers stripped the children of valuables and ordered them to march through the school gate and into a forest where the group made their camp. In all, more than 340 schoolboys were abducted. “They commanded the crowd like a herdsman herds the sheep,” an escapee told CNN. In the coming days, members of the group released a video demanding a ransom for the boys’ release. They said they were part of…

ADF STAFF A gory two-week siege in Palma, a port city on the northern end of the Mozambique Channel, rattled the region and drew calls for international intervention. The terror group Ansar al-Sunna (supporters of the tradition) claimed responsibility for the attack that left about 60 people dead, including children. By April 4, Palma was back under government control, but the damage was severe. “The population is returning, but they have nothing to eat because the terrorists have looted almost everything,” Agostinho Muthisse, a Mozambican military commander, told reporters in Palma. The attack illustrates why security experts worry that the…

ADF STAFF As moonlight glints off the waves of the Liberian coast, a group of divers with blowtorches and breathing masks plunge deep into the dark water. From the ocean floor, they gather as many sea cucumbers as they can. They make $1.75 for every kilogram of sea cucumbers they collect. On a good night, they pull in up to 50 kilograms apiece. It’s not an easy job. Their wetsuits get torn on rocks; diving into deep waters can cause nose bleeds and headaches; and they risk catching lipoid pneumonia from inhaling fumes from diesel-powered oxygen compressors. As the BBC…