ADF

ADF STAFF The Chinese government recently imposed a strict 10-year fishing ban on the 6,300-kilometer-long Yangtze River to preserve native fish populations. The move was made in response to a significant drop in China’s domestic fish catch, which went from 7.65 million tons in 2017 to 6.82 million tons in 2019. For several years, China has aggressively policed its waters. In 2017, it impounded 7,000 vessels, seized 400,000 nets and recorded 10,343 arrests on fishing-related charges in 2017, according to a SeafoodSource report. China’s hard-nosed approach to illegal domestic fishing stands in contrast to its distant-water fishing fleets in Africa,…

ADF STAFF The Sahel in Africa, one of the world’s most fragile regions, is experiencing a confluence of deadly crises, as terrorism recently has been coupled with historic flooding. Months of steady and torrential rainfall have led two key rivers — the Niger and the Nile —  and several dams to overflow. In a region already plagued by food insecurity and displacement due to violence, millions have seen homes and farms destroyed by floods, making food and other resources even more prone to stockpiling by armed groups. “This level of destruction as a result of a natural disaster is unprecedented…

ADF STAFF Mauritanians are demanding justice after artisanal fishermen died when their boat was struck by a large Chinese trawler. The early September incident occurred in Atlantic waters off the port city of Nouadhibou. Three of the six fishermen aboard the Mauritanian boat were killed and the captain of the Chinese vessel was detained, according to local news reports. Days later, hundreds of local fishermen joined family members of the dead fishermen in calling for Mauritanian leaders to expel foreign trawlers — including those from China, Russia and Turkey — from Mauritanian waters and to provide better protection of artisanal…

ADF STAFF Niger’s Directorate of Territorial Surveillance (DST) has a new home in Niamey that agency leaders and international allies say will help the government better monitor migration and prevent transnational crime. Designed by a Nigerien architectural firm, the $3 million complex took six months to build. The project got financial support from the U.S. State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. The United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM) managed the project. “The need for a new headquarters has been imposed by the reality of our daily lives,” Commissaire Abdourahmane Alfa, the DST director, said at the inauguration…

ADF STAFF Wildlife monitors observing endangered black rhinos in Zimbabwe recently came across something unexpected. Amid the pristine landscape of Hwange National Park, a group of Chinese men were drilling for coal. Zimbabwean conservation nonprofit Bhejane Trust reported the incident on its Facebook page on September 1 and said Zimbabwe Parks and Wildlife Management Authority arrested the men and turned them over to the police. “However, they soon reappeared with a permit giving them the right to carry on in the park with exploratory drilling,” the group reported. The story made international news and triggered outrage. The hashtag #SaveHwangeNationalPark spread…

ADF STAFF China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), a sprawling strategic infrastructure program, has been viewed with skepticism since its unveiling in 2013. Through the years, the seeds of doubt have grown as numerous developing countries agreed to billions of dollars in loans that have proven difficult to repay. Evidence of China’s approach is scattered about Africa, as BRI projects have led to local protests and government investigations over opaque loans, crippling debt, and increasing reliance on Chinese products, labor and commercial enterprises. Now, there is growing concern that China could militarize one sector of its BRI assets — ports.…

ADF STAFF Just as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) was ending its longest and largest outbreak of the Ebola virus in the eastern provinces, another emerged in the northwest in early June. The DRC’s 10th outbreak of the deadly virus began in August 2018 and was eliminated on June 25, 2020. In 23 months, there were 3,470 cases and 2,287 deaths, including 41 healthcare workers. The 11th outbreak was announced on June 1 after a cluster of cases was discovered in and around the Equateur province’s capital city of Mbandaka. To date, the World Health Organization (WHO) has…

ADF STAFF High above the waters off the coast of West Africa, the seabirds trailing a fishing trawler share space with a wedge-shaped drone that also follows the ship. The drone belongs to ATLAN Space, a Moroccan company using technology to keep watch on fishing far from the mainland. ATLAN’s drones replace the small aircraft or coast guard vessels that usually do the monitoring, freeing them for other law enforcement tasks. The artificial intelligence that powers the drone earned ATLAN CEO and co-founder Badr Idrissi a spot among the 10 finalists in the 2017 Innovation Prize for Africa. In 2018,…

ADF STAFF Land mines that killed a United Nations peacekeeper from Rwanda and injured two others in the Central African Republic (CAR) may be linked to the Wagner Group, a Russian mercenary outfit. Days after the July 15 blast, Charles Bambara, communications manager of the U.N. mission in the CAR, accused the insurgent group Return, Reclamation, Rehabilitation (3R) of using the anti-personnel and anti-tank mines against Central African Armed Forces (FACA) and the U.N. Calling for swift justice, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said the deadly attack “may constitute war crimes under international law.” Members of the CAR military suspect the…

ADF STAFF A young man in a yellow T-shirt strained as he helped pull a fishing net from the Gulf of Guinea. A resident of Sierra Leone, Abu Bakr Aconteh frowned as he surveyed the haul. “We are not happy with this, because it is a small catch,” he told the BBC. Like many fishermen in West Africa, Aconteh blames dwindling fish populations on foreign trawlers, all of which are much larger, more sophisticated vessels than the wooden canoe used by his crew. Roughly three-quarters of the foreign industrial trawlers in Sierra Leone are Chinese. Although much of the locally…