ADF

Amina of Zazzau was born a princess, raised in wealth and privilege. But her mother and grandfather saw to it that she also was trained as a warrior. Today she is remembered as one of West Africa’s great military leaders. The princess was born about 1533 in Zazzau, one of seven original states of the Hausa Kingdom, in what is now Nigeria. Even in her early years, her grandfather recognized her intelligence and bearing. He trained her along with his soldiers, and she accompanied him to state meetings. Her mother gave her responsibility for a section of the capital city,…

CLUES The Ibadites created five fortified cities in the 10th century. The architecture was designed for community living while respecting family structures. A mosque, whose minaret functions as a watchtower, dominates each miniature walled citadel. Houses here are built around the mosques in concentric circles. ANSWER  M’Zab Valley, Algeria

The recent attack on a Malian Army base near the community of Aguelhok was the latest example of insurgent groups in the country using armed drones against government and paramilitary forces. The attack by the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) in early April targeted a military base near the community used by the Malian Army (FAMa) and fighters working for Russia’s Africa Corps. The attack was the latest in a series of FLA assaults on regional military bases. In late March, the group attacked a joint FAMa-Africa Corps base in nearby Anéfis. A few days before, they launched their first attack…

Yusuf was 5 years old on the night that Islamic State group terrorists on motorcycles raided his village and took him to raise as one of their own. By the time he was 10, he had fought against the Nigerian Army and the rival terrorist group known as Boko Haram. After five years of combat with the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), the 15-year-old had been hardened to the sight of death and destruction. He explained how young children are indoctrinated into combat: “You want to wear the uniform,” he told British newspaper The Times for a March 13…

Secret meetings, fake documents, smear campaigns and paid local influencers. These were some of the tools that Russian agents used to conduct covert influence operations in Southern Africa during election campaigns between 2019 and 2025, seeking to manipulate political outcomes and keep pro-Moscow governments in power. A network referred to as “The Company” ran operations that targeted Madagascar, Namibia and South Africa, according to The Continent, a pan-African digital newspaper based in South Africa. “Russian operatives engineered narrative-change campaigns across Africa, paid for media coverage and drafted policies for governments,” The Continent wrote in its February 14 edition. “We have…

Al-Shabaab’s attack last October on the Godka Jilacow prison in Mogadishu took place with the help of foreign fighters from across East Africa, the terrorist group reported in a recently released video. The attack on one of the country’s most secure prisons sent shockwaves through the region. Al-Shabaab claimed to have killed more than 40 Somali security personnel. In contrast, the government described the attack as a failure in which the attackers died. It appears that some of those attackers came from Ethiopia, Kenya and Tanzania, according to the al-Shabaab video. Al-Shabaab has a history of recruiting fighters from neighboring…

The defense partnership between Kenya and France reached a new phase in mid-March when three French warships and more than 800 French military personnel docked at the Port of Mombasa during a mission focused on training and maritime security cooperation. The deployment of the Aconit, a frigate, and Dixmude, an amphibious assault ship, aimed to strengthen the countries’ defense ties and secure vital shipping lanes in the Western Indian Ocean. The region faces threats such as human trafficking, illegal fishing, maritime terrorism, and various other forms of smuggling and trafficking. An offshore Finch patrol vessel also participated in the mission.…

Four Chinese fishing vessels in late February were found operating illegally inside South Africa’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and territorial waters without the required permits. The vessels repeatedly switched off their automatic identification system (AIS) transponders, a common practice among illegal fishing offenders. Owned by Shenzhen Shuiwan Pelagic Fisheries, the vessels were tracked 12 nautical miles from the KwaZulu-Natal coast and along the Eastern Cape coastline. The captains of the Zhong Yang 231, Zhong Yang 232, Zhong Yang 233 and Zhong Yang 239 each were fined about $24,118 before leaving the country. “South Africa will not tolerate the unlawful use of its…

Algeria expanded African nations’ presence in space this year with the launch of two satellites in two weeks in January. ALSAT-3A and ALSAT-3B brought to 69 the number of satellites African countries have launched into orbit since Egypt’s NileSat-101 in 1998. Space has become an important frontier for African countries eager to flex their technological muscles and gather data about weather, food security, population movements and other information to help them plan for the future. Algeria developed ALSAT-3A and 3B to deliver high-resolution images of Earth that will boost its capacity for land-use planning and disaster prevention. They came after…

The Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-North (SPLM-N) said a Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) airstrike that killed at least seven people and injured dozens more during a funeral on March 27 in the Nuba Mountains. The region near the South Sudan border was far from the front lines when Sudan’s civil war erupted in April 2023, but that has gradually changed since 2025, after the SPLM-N elected to join forces with the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) against the SAF. The SPLM-N controls most of South Kordofan State, which encompasses the mountains. Led by Gen. Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo, the RSF uses…