ADF

In a video posted to social media, a Sudanese soldier dragged a man with a broken leg into a ditch on the edge of the city of Omdurman and shot him to death. He then used a long knife to cut off the man’s head while his companions cheered. That execution and desecration is one of several incidents in which members of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and their allied militias are accused of committing war crimes as they retake land formerly held by the opposing paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). After retaking Khartoum and Omdurman from the RSF in…

With a significant rise in defense spending, Algeria is moving to modernize and expand the capacity of its People’s National Army. New acquisitions are bolstering its ground forces, air force and naval assets, and enhancing its intelligence and technological capabilities. Since 2023, Algeria’s military budget has risen by more than $2 billion annually. In 2024, it spent $21.6 billion. This year, it reached a record $25 billion. The official reason is homeland security. But seen through the prism of its historical rivalry, the buildup is a concern to neighboring Morocco. “Its status among the top 40 global military spenders is…

Decades of armed conflicts in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo have produced a familiar cycle of hope for peace talks and disappointment when fighting continues. After the Congolese government and Rwanda-backed M23 rebels agreed to a temporary ceasefire on April 23 in Qatar, it didn’t take long for renewed fighting to shatter the peace. But there is renewed hope, as the two sides continue to negotiate a broader deal. “The situation has not changed, the fighting continues, and the humanitarian situation is as dramatic as ever in North and South Kivu,” Congolese Foreign Minister Thérèse Kayikwamba Wagner told…

Angola has made significant progress in clearing land mines and other unexploded ordnance left over from the country’s 27-year civil war. These efforts have made previously hazardous areas safe for agriculture, housing and community development projects, but work remains. Angola’s Benguela and Huambo provinces are expected to be completely free of mines this year. Benguela is in western Angola on the Atlantic coast. Huambo is in central Angola. Brig. Gen. Leonardo Severino Sapalo, Angola’s director-general of the National Mine Action Agency, spoke about the progress after a visit by a multicountry delegation of diplomats to see the work of Halo Trust,…

Political and military analyst Gregoire Cyrille Dongobada has authored more than 75 articles in two and a half years, reporting about more than a dozen West African countries. Originally from the Central African Republic, he is now based in Paris. Dongobada has used his expert analysis to focus on French and Russian roles in the African security sector with headlines such as, “The reasons for anti-French sentiment in West Africa” and “France’s jealousy of the successes of the Russian presence in Mali.” There is a problem, however: Gregoire Cyrille Dongobada doesn’t exist. A recent investigation into “ghost reporters” by Al…

With several arrests in the past year, Liberia is the latest West African country to clamp down on illegal mining operations conducted by Chinese nationals. Sen. Albert Tugbe Chie recently condemned the economic and environmental damage caused by unregulated miners, including land degradation and the pollution of rivers from dredging operations, which are prohibited by the Ministry of Mines and Energy (MME). “These activities are not only illegal but also rob the county and the country of much-needed revenue while leaving behind environmental devastation,” he said during an April 10 speech in Barclayville, according to The Liberian Investigator news website.…

Faced with continuing terror attacks, Burkina Faso’s ruling military junta has tried to silence citizens and journalists who report on or criticize its actions. Security Minister Mahamadou Sana recently issued a warning on Facebook against citizens liking or sharing content that the junta considered to be incitement of terrorism. Sana based the warning on what he described as “malicious content in the form of posts, photos or videos inciting terrorism and conveying false news” on social media. Terrorist groups frequently post videos or reports of their attacks on government forces to social media. Those accounts often contradict the government’s official…

As peacekeeping missions stretch miliary resources, governments are increasingly turning their attention to partnering with private companies to shoulder the load. Supporters of public-private partnership (PPP) arrangements see them as a way to strengthen the African continent’s military capabilities by harnessing innovations from the private sector. “By fostering collaborations between government entities and private industry we can revitalize existing capabilities, integrate cutting-edge technologies suited for purpose, and ensure that our defense forces and security cluster are well equipped to meet the contemporary challenges they face,” Daniel du Plessis told defenceWeb during the 2025 Public-Private Partnerships for Defense and Security Conference…

Security forces in Somalia’s autonomous northeastern Puntland region have made significant progress in ridding the area of the Islamic State group in Somalia (ISSOM). Since November, the Puntland Defense Forces (PDF) has waged war on the group in a campaign known as Operation Hilaac. Clan militias; the Puntland Darawish, a regional paramilitary unit; and the Puntland Maritime Police Force participated in the operation, which recently has reclaimed swaths of mountainous territory from ISSOM. In late April, Darawish forces killed more than 40 ISSOM fighters during operations in the Togga Miiraale area of the Cal Miskaad mountain range. “Our forces dealt a…

Militant Islamist violence in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger is continuing to expand to the west and south, threatening coastal nations from Mauritania to Nigeria. Violence linked to terror groups affiliated with al-Qaida and the Islamic State group (IS) has steadily increased in scale and scope in recent years. Fatalities linked to these groups are more than two and a half times the levels recorded in 2020 when the first of Mali’s military coups occurred, the Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS) reported. Increased insecurity also came after subsequent coups in Burkina Faso and Niger. “The continued southward and westward…