ADF

ADF STAFF Five years after West Africa defeated a major Ebola outbreak, health care workers are rushing to stop new outbreaks in Guinea and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) before they can spread. At the end of February, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported 17 Ebola cases and seven deaths in Guinea and eight cases and four deaths in the DRC. Teams have begun so-called ring vaccinations in both countries to protect people who may have come into contact with those exposed to the virus. Ring vaccinations control an outbreak by vaccinating and monitoring a ring of people…

ADF STAFF A coastal area near Mozambique’s border with Tanzania has become the latest hot spot in the ongoing insurgency by extremists in Mozambique. Attacks against villages near the administrative post in Quionga the last two weekends of February sent hundreds of residents fleeing into the forest for safety. Attackers armed with machine guns and machetes stalked the towns of Quirinde and Namoto, burning homes and looting supplies. Although defense forces reestablished control, the violence signals that extremists once again are armed and ready to fight after a relatively quiet start to the year. “After a lull of several weeks,…

ADF STAFF Borno State in Nigeria is the birthplace of Boko Haram’s armed uprising. It’s also the province that has been hit the hardest. The terror group has wrought havoc and killed tens of thousands since it formed in the northeastern region in 2009. In the past year, Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari has worked to expand the size and scope of paramilitary and police forces. The United States is supporting those efforts. “We will direct our attention and strength to reenergizing and reorganizing the security apparatus,” Buhari pledged in a New Year’s Day broadcast amid a spike in insurgent violence.…

ADF STAFF Despite recent setbacks, China continues to bank heavily on exporting coal-based power to Africa through its Belt and Road Initiative. And it does so even as the government promotes renewable energy at home. Since 2000, the China Development Bank and the Export-Import Bank of China have funded $51.8 billion in coal projects globally, according to the Boston University Global Development Policy Center. Of China’s 34 coal-fired power projects worldwide, 11 are in Africa. The list of countries includes Botswana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe. Plants are under construction in Malawi, Zambia and Zimbabwe. The rest are awaiting approvals…

ADF STAFF The continued presence of foreign fighters in Libya threatens to undermine a peace deal brokered by the United Nations in October 2020. Russian mercenaries who are part of the Wagner Group, which supports Gen. Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA), still are on the ground, as are Turkish Soldiers backing the internationally recognized Government of National Accord (GNA). Under the Juba Peace Agreement, foreign fighters were supposed to leave the country by late January. Weeks after the deadline passed, the United Nations issued a report alleging that the United Arab Emirates (UAE) also maintained contact with Sudanese forces…

ADF STAFF Home to the second-largest rainforest in the world, the Congo Basin plays a crucial role in the world’s biodiversity, water quality and in regulating the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. All of those benefits are under assault. In 2019 alone, nearly 7,000 square kilometers of forest vanished from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). Many factors are driving deforestation, from traditional slash-and-burn farming to mining and illegal logging. The development of the trans-African Lagos-Mombasa Highway also has opened previously inaccessible portions of rainforest in Cameroon and Nigeria to development. In the past, tracking deforestation depended…

ADF STAFF For Nigerien Armed Forces (FAN) Soldiers operating in remote regions of the country, first aid training can be the difference between life and death. A United States-led training event helped give Nigerien forces the skills necessary to stabilize wounded Soldiers on the battlefield and move them quickly to a hospital. In conjunction with FAN’s emergency medicine personnel, the U.S. military distributed individual first aid kits (IFAKs) and conducted a one-day medical readiness training exercise (MEDRETE) at FAN’s base in Niamey for 20 Nigerien Soldiers on January 21, 2021. “The medical readiness training exercise illustrated the importance for the…

ADF STAFF Experts are worried that a planned $3 billion coal plant in Zimbabwe will increase pollution and plunge the country further into debt. The plant is to be built in the northern Zimbabwe town of Sengwa, near Lake Kariba, the world’s largest artificial lake and reservoir. Daily power outages in the area have hindered industrial capacity for decades, and the reservoir already is seriously depleted by droughts. China Gezhouba Group Corp. will help build the plant with RioZim Ltd. Commercial Bank of China has formally expressed interest in the project and is negotiating with Sinosure, also known as the…

ADF STAFF Vessels involved in illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing are being used for more in Africa than removing tons of fish from already depleted fish stocks and depriving hundreds of thousands of people of their livelihoods. There is a trend of criminal groups using IUU fishing as a cover for drug and weapons smuggling, according to Ecotrust Canada, a nonprofit organization with a focus on fisheries management, and other organizations. The use of small fishing vessels in drug smuggling has tripled worldwide in the past eight years and represents roughly 15% of the total global retail value of…

ADF STAFF A notorious ivory and rhino horn poacher known as Mansour awaits trial in United States federal court after his arrest in July 2020 by Kenya’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations. Mansour, whose real name is Abubakar Mansur Mohammed Surur, was arrested July 29, 2020, at Mombasa’s Moi International Airport as he stepped off a chartered flight from Yemen. Mansour is a Kenyan citizen and has a Yemeni identity card. He is a suspected member of a transnational criminal gang based in Uganda led by Moazu Kromah of Liberia. Chris Thouless, director of the Elephant Crisis Fund at Kenya-based Save…