ADF

Holdovers from History Hamper the Vast Nation’s Ability to Overcome Instability ADF STAFF The proliferation of armed groups in Africa’s second-largest country has destabilized the nation for decades, but an incident in December 2017 brought renewed attention to the dangers present in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). The Allied Democratic Forces attacked United Nations personnel in the eastern DRC’s North Kivu province, killing 15 peacekeepers, at least five members of the DRC’s military, and wounding another 53 peacekeepers. The three-hour firefight destroyed at least one armored personnel carrier, U.N. officials told The Washington Post. “This is the worst attack…

In asymmetric wars, more needs to be done to protect people caught in the middle ADF STAFF A small bus loaded with 24 people from Burkina Faso was crossing into Mali, en route to a weekly market in the town of Boni. Nine kilometers from the market, the vehicle triggered a land mine planted by Malian insurgents. All 24 people, including four babies and their mothers, were killed in the January 2018 incident. It’s a common story. At least 600,000 African civilians in 27 countries have been killed in the past 20 years during conflicts, with millions more wounded and…

BBC NEWS AT BBC.CO.UK/NEWS Ivoirian Aristide Bancé is football’s version of Marco Polo. Since debuting for the Ivoirian club Stade d’Abidjan in 2000, the 33-year-old has played for 20 professional clubs, including time in Belgium, Burkina Faso, Dubai, Egypt, Finland, Germany, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Qatar, South Africa, Turkey and Ukraine. He currently plays for Al Masry of Egypt, where football matches are under tight security. “It’s a shame that matches here are played behind closed doors at the moment, for security reasons,” he explained. “It would be really super if the supporters could come back into the stadiums.” In 2012, thousands…

BRAND SOUTH AFRICA A South African chef was named the best female chef in the world for 2017 at The Best Chef Awards in Poland. Chantel Dartnell, owner of the acclaimed Restaurant Mosaic in Tshwane, has twice been named South African Chef of the Year, and her Pretoria restaurant is one of the country’s top-rated dining spots. She trained at a number of restaurants in the United Kingdom. She uses what she learned to create classic dining and uniquely South African menus that have earned Restaurant Mosaic several local and international food awards, including a Diners’ Club World’s 50 Best…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE A live performance of an aria from an Italian opera isn’t a common sound in the bustling city of Lagos, Nigeria. So, when news spread of an appearance by professional soprano Omo Bello at the Musical Society of Nigeria School of Music, crowds flocked to see her. “I didn’t realize to what extent I was recognized in Nigeria,” the 33-year-old admitted after singing O mio babbino caro, from Giacomo Puccini’s 1918 opera Gianni Schicchi. “I’ve been away for over a decade, and I guess things have changed and I didn’t realize how much,” she said. “When I was…

DEFENCEWEB Piracy across the world dropped in 2017 as officials reported a total of 180 attacks against ships to the International Maritime Bureau (IMB). This is the lowest annual number of incidents since 1995, when 188 incidents were reported. In 2017, pirates boarded 136 vessels, and there were 22 attempted attacks, 16 vessels fired upon and six hijacked. In 15 incidents, pirates took 91 crew members hostage aboard their ships, and 75 were kidnapped and removed from their vessels in 13 other incidents. Three crew members were killed in 2017, and six were injured. “Although the number of attacks is…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Yetnebersh Nigussie’s first battle for disability rights was in law school, when she successfully pushed university administrators to provide Braille textbooks for blind students such as herself. Not long after, Yetnebersh, 35, left the legal profession to pursue a different type of advocacy as a full-time fighter for the rights and opportunities of Ethiopia’s millions of disabled people. In 2017, her life’s work was recognized with a Right Livelihood Award, often called the “Alternative Nobel Prize.” But her work is not yet complete. “There are still … millions of persons with disabilities who are living in a very…

VOICE OF AMERICA Somalia’s government has launched a digital counterextremism center that aims to dissuade young Somalis from supporting militant groups such as al-Shabaab and ISIS. The Somali Ministry of Information said the center will carry out campaigns on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and state-run media to get its message across. “The center plans to raise public awareness [with a] campaign on countering violent extremism, security and peace building, good governance, civic education, and implementing programs that can provide confidence to the people by discrediting terrorists’ narratives of violence and destruction,” said Information Minister Abdirahman Omar Osman. Osman, during the opening…

REUTERS By rewarding whistleblowers, boosting prosecutions and challenging beliefs in black magic, Nigeria is ramping up its crusade against human trafficking. The effort is backed by millions of pounds of British aid, anti-slavery and government officials said. Thousands of Nigerian women and girls are lured to Europe each year and make the treacherous sea crossing from Libya to Italy, where they are trafficked into sex work, the United Nations reported. The number of Nigerian women and girls arriving in Italy by boat surged to more than 11,000 in 2016 from 1,500 in 2014, with at least four in five forced…

REUTERS Up to 6,000 Africans who fought for ISIS in Iraq and Syria could return home, the African Union’s top security official warned, calling on countries to prepare for the threat. Smail Chergui, the AU’s commissioner for peace and security, said African nations need to work closely with each other and share intelligence to counter returning militants. “There are reports of 6,000 African fighters among the 30,000 foreign elements who joined this terrorist group in the Middle East,” Chergui told a meeting in Algiers, according to the Algeria Press Service. “The return of these elements to Africa poses a serious…