ADF

ADF STAFF Aidu Williams has spent 40 years fishing in Goderich wharf on the western axis of Sierra Leone’s Freetown peninsula. He used to go to sea and return with large coolers full of grouper and snapper in his wooden canoe, but those days are over. Over the past three decades, foreign industrial trawlers have diminished fish populations near shore. Williams and other artisanal fishermen now must venture farther out to sea, often returning with little or no catch. With so much money spent on fuel, crews sometimes go unpaid after working backbreaking hours on the water. “Before, we experienced…

ADF STAFF The word “momentum” was repeated often during the first in-person Naval Infantry Leaders Symposium-Africa (NILS-A) held in Dakar, Senegal. For security leaders attending it reflects a growing consensus of the need to build partnerships and invest in the naval infantry, which is at the “tip of the spear” in the continent’s toughest fights against terrorism, trafficking and piracy in its littoral zones. “We all came here for the same reason: to defend freedom,” said Maj. Gen. Tracy King, the commander U.S. Marine Corps Forces Europe and Africa. “I sense the momentum in this room from we 30 nations…

ADF STAFF Increasing attacks in northern Togo have targeted civilians and military personnel — yet another sign of Sahel terror groups progressively expanding and threatening coastal West Africa. Togo declared a “state of security emergency” in its northern border Savanes region on June 13, 2022, in response to the first deadly terrorist attack in the country’s history in early May. “It [the state of emergency] will enhance the speed of decision making and facilitate greater agility for public services and defense and security forces,” the government said in a statement. Minister of Communication Akodah Ayewouadan said the state of emergency…

ADF STAFF Ethiopia is awash in ethnic violence. At a time when the prospect of peace talks to end the bloody civil war between the federal government and the Tigray region in the north is materializing, age-old wounds have blasted open in the west. “Well before the conflict [with Tigray] in northern Ethiopia, there has been widespread impunity for ongoing rights abuses in Ethiopia’s Oromia region, including in areas already suffering from conflict,” international organization Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a July 4 report. “Many of these abuses still persist and require urgent international attention.” Two massacres in late…

ADF STAFF Checkpoints line the road between Tanguieta and Porga in northern Benin as Soldiers in armored vehicles patrol the region for terrorist activity. This normally quiet corner of West Africa has seen four terrorist attacks since December by Mali-based Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), an extremist group linked to al-Qaida. “We used to live a quiet life,” Mounou Y’Moussa, the imam of the central mosque in Porga, told the German news agency DW.com. “Today, it’s all about uncertainty and insecurity.” Porga is a border town near the Point Triple where Benin, Togo, and Burkina Faso meet. Attacks there in…

ADF STAFF Artisanal fishermen in East Africa have relied on sea cucumbers for food and income for generations. Now, the leathery, pickle-shaped species is overfished in many parts of the region, including Kenya, Madagascar, Mozambique, Seychelles and Zanzibar. The species is increasingly smuggled to China and Hong Kong where it is considered a delicacy and often used in traditional Chinese medicine. “The illegal trade in sea cucumbers is mainly a result of illegal fishing operations in source countries, or they have been traded under the declaration of other species, or they have not been declared and were smuggled with other…

ADF STAFF Sudanese miners are blaming Russia’s infamous Wagner Group mercenaries for massacres along the porous border between South Darfur state and the Central African Republic (CAR). Witnesses say the Wagner Group,  with close ties to the Kremlin, has fought to loot the region’s rich gold mines in recent months, as Russian mercenaries killed scores of miners in at least three major attacks. Two Sudanese miners who survived attacks in March by Wagner mercenaries said they were detained for days and tortured. “There are multinational fighters with the Russian security company,” one of the witnesses told news website Middle East…

ADF STAFF Feeling pressure to make money, Dayo Sadiq decided to migrate from her home in Benin City, Nigeria, to Mali. She had been promised a job making up to $360 a month to clean houses. Like many other Nigerian women from Edo State, Dayo (who used a pseudonym) was deceived by a fake job offer from an acquaintance she met at the market. When she arrived at the outskirts of the Malian capital, Bamako, she was taken to a sex workers house guarded by armed men. “Men would come in to choose girls as a sex partner or they…

ADF STAFF A Chinese fishing company with a five-year right to fish for shrimp in Madagascar has kept its boats idle this year as they do not have licenses to trawl. The company, Mada Fishery, has a dubious history. Three of its eight boats in Madagascar previously were caught violating fishing laws in West Africa, according to the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF). “As recently as November 4, 2020, the vessels were intercepted by the Gambian Navy, Gambian Department of Fisheries and Sea Shepherd,” Steve Trent, chief executive officer of EJF, told Mongabay. “The trawlers were found to have been fishing…

ADF STAFF Mozambique’s restive northeastern province is abuzz with action. Despite recent losses, violent insurgents continue to attack villages and residents, while thousands of security forces fight to secure towns in order to welcome back displaced citizens and restore budding hopes of normalcy. At the same time, the government, international organizations, donor countries and a regional bloc working to stabilize southern Africa are debating and forming plans to rebuild the province. The number of moving parts, like the rebuilding challenge itself, is overwhelming. “In a beehive you have 40,000 bees, and each bee knows exactly what they’re doing,” independent South…