ADF

In November 2014, a horrific attack was carried out against a mosque in Kano in northern Nigeria, killing more than 100 innocent civilians. It bore the hallmarks of Boko Haram. In northern Kenya, al-Shabaab carried out two horrendous attacks. On December 2, elements of the group descended upon a quarry near the town of Mandera, beheading and shooting 36 workers. A week before that, and in the same area, the group killed 28 travelers after forcing their bus off the road. In Mali, terrorist groups continue to ambush and kill peacekeepers. Since the United Nations first deployed in July 2013,…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Mozambique, once one of the most heavily land-mined countries in the world, is declaring itself free of the deadly scourge. In 1992, as it emerged from 16 years of civil war, Mozambique was considered — along with Angola, Afghanistan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Cambodia — one of the five most heavily mined nations on Earth. Now, no later than early 2015, Mozambique will be the first of the five to be declared “impact-free.” Minefields were the deadly legacy of the bloodshed that killed a million people in fighting between the Frelimo liberation movement and anti-communist Renamo rebels. The…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Namibia’s outgoing president has won the Mo Ibrahim Prize for good governance in Africa, the world’s richest award that has seen a dearth of worthy candidates. Hifikepunye Pohamba, 79, is only the fourth winner of the $5 million annual prize, launched in 2007 to encourage and reward good governance across the continent. Although elections are now the rule in Africa, many leaders try to push through constitutional changes to stay in power, sometimes well into old age, while others die in office or are forced to flee. Pohamba was honored by choosing a different path. “President Pohamba’s focus…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Since its inception five years ago, LagosPhoto has become one of the biggest photography festivals in Africa. The annual event tries to reflect life on the continent through the eyes of Africans, rather than just photographers from elsewhere. In 2014, organizers turned to fantasy and fiction to encourage artists to go beyond showing the realities of daily life and worries about basic necessities. “The aim is to give Africa, Nigeria, Lagos — the city [and] its people — a voice,” said founder Azu Nwagbogu. “We want people to be able to tell their stories.” Photos on vast canvasses…

IEDs Become the Weapon of Choice in Asymmetric Warfare On Sunday, December 28, 2014, a sugar cane seller in Potiskum, Nigeria, died when she stepped on a bomb in a school football field. She was 12 years old. The bomb was planted Sunday to be triggered the next day when the field would be crowded with children. Instead, the girl stepped on it early in the evening, when she was one of the only people on the field. A few months earlier, a suicide bomber in Nigeria’s Yobe state rode a motorized rickshaw to an outdoor venue, where people watched…

Extremist groups seek CBRN weapons, but what is the likelihood of an attack? ALEXANDER DETERT/ALUMNUS OF THE GEORGE C. MARSHALL EUROPEAN CENTER FOR SECURITY STUDIES Instability in the wake of the Arab Spring and a new crop of aggressive terrorist organizations, including the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), have prompted some to announce that we are entering a new era of extremism. This means it is necessary to look at old threats from new angles, such as the use of chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) weapons by terrorist organizations. Has extremism changed to a degree that contemporary terrorist…

A Conversation with the AMISOM Force Commander Photos by AMISOM Lt. Gen. Silas Ntigurirwa was the force commander of the 22,000-person African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM) from December 2013 to December 2014. The first Burundian to hold the post, he arrived in Somalia after a long military career during which he specialized in overseeing complex disarmament, demobilization and reintegration processes in Burundi. The 46-year-old officer is married with four children. He has held numerous posts in his home country, including command positions at the platoon, company and battalion levels. He also served in Côte d’Ivoire as chairman of security…

Kenya’s government is bringing some light — and hope — to Kibera, a sprawling slum on the outskirts of Nairobi. Population and area figures differ from source to source, but at least 200,000 people are believed to live there. Crime is no stranger to Kibera. Carolyn Njoroge recalls a terrifying evening in late 2007, when she became a victim of violence that erupted as a result of national elections. “My next-door neighbor kicked my door in, shouting that he wanted to kill us for us electing the president,” Njoroge told The Telegraph in 2013. “I hid under the bed while…

Case Studies from Iran, Sri Lanka and Somalia BY FRANCOIS VREŸ, ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, PH.D., FACULTY OF MILITARY SCIENCE, STELLENBOSCH UNIVERSITY, SOUTH AFRICA This article was adapted from a paper the author wrote while on exchange to the faculty of the Royal Danish Defence College, Copenhagen. Asymmetry can be used to describe several types of conflicts, but it’s a mistake to associate asymmetry exclusively with irregular opponents fighting conventionally structured military forces. Another mistake is to focus only on land-based asymmetry. Asymmetry is generally understood as the outcome of a process in which weaker actors look for ways to blunt or minimize…

In North Africa, extremists who fought alongside ISIS on the battlefield are returning home. At the beginning of 2015, an estimated 31,000 fighters in the self-proclaimed Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, or ISIS, had tightened their grip over a vast swath of land. Thousands of those fighters were African. And as ISIS tries to expand into new territory, African fighters have begun to return to their home countries. They are bringing their extremism with them. ISIS, also known as ISIL, began in 1999 in Iraq, founded by the now-deceased Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a militant Islamist from Jordan. In 2004,…