ADF

African nations have become a testing ground for hybrid warfare tactics in recent years, a development that experts say requires nations to improve their cyber defenses, strengthen community bonds and make populations more resilient to attacks. “The stakes are high,” Armand Badenhorst, a former member of the South African Police Service, wrote recently for defenceWeb. False information “can incite violence, erode trust in institutions, and even derail military operations.” Spreading false information is part of a hybrid warfare strategy that combines conventional military tactics with cyberattacks and other non-kinetic methods designed to sow distrust and discord among a nation’s populace.…

Russian mercenary organization Wagner Group is being replaced in the Sahel by the state-controlled Africa Corps. However, it seems unlikely that the change will alter Russian mercenaries’ brutal methods in the terrorism-plagued region, according to experts. The shift might make conditions in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger even worse, analysts argue in a paper published by the Combating Terrorism Center at West Point. Since the Wagner Group arrived in Mali in 2021 and Africa Corps came to Burkina Faso and Niger in 2024, little has happened to quell the violence that has made the region the global leader in terrorism.…

Shock and frustration colored Abdelaziz Ali’s face as he walked out of the primary school where he worked in Khartoum. Like so much of Sudan’s capital, the school was littered with the wreckage of war. He emerged from one of the buildings with an unused artillery shell that he found under a pile of cloths. “How wouldn’t I be afraid?” he told Reuters news service. “Every day I find two containers filled with ammunition and [rocket-propelled grenades] and other explosives, all in here, a children’s school. All of these things need to be cleared.” Sudan’s civil war has played out…

Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) recently took control of the country’s northwestern corner that borders Egypt and Libya. The move could allow greater access to weapons flowing from Libya while raising the potential for Sudan’s war to spread to neighboring countries. The fighting displaced about 4,000 people, some of whom fled into Egypt for shelter and then were forced to seek refuge in Libya. The strategic El Uweinat region surrounds Jebel Uweinat, a huge rock formation that has been an important landmark for centuries along the trade route that links Kufra, Libya, and Dongola, Sudan. Studies say that Jebel…

The Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin terror group unexpectedly stormed the northern Burkina Faso town of Djibo early May 11 and began an onslaught that killed more than 100 civilians, Soldiers and paramilitary members. The jihadists, known as JNIM, also abducted dozens of Soldiers and civilians, including women. Videos on social media showed JNIM fighters looting and destroying an Army camp and gendarmerie and police headquarters. According to the International Crisis Group, the terrorists also torched a medical center, pharmacy and market. The al-Qaida-affiliated group has gradually gained strength since its formation in 2017. Citing regional and Western officials, The Washington Post…

Moroccan Royal Armed Forces Brig. Gen. Aziz Idrissi Yazami stood in front of a packed conference room and painted a picture of the numerous security challenges facing Africa. Terrorism and extremist ideology, inter-state conflict, humanitarian crises and natural disasters are all too common across the continent and are taking place amid the proliferation of weapons and emerging technology in the hands of non-state actors. There never has been a greater need for leadership, Yazami said. His opening remarks leaned staunchly into the themes of this year’s African Senior Enlisted Conference: Resilient, Adaptive, Transformative. “It is essential that [noncommissioned officers] are…

It is around midnight and a Namibian vessel’s radar detects a foreign trawler notorious for illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing entering Namibian waters. The Namibian vessel communicates with the country’s fisheries monitoring center in Walvis Bay and the Navy and fisheries department are alerted. However, there are no law enforcement vessels near the Namibia-Angola maritime border and the foreign vessel evades authorities. This scenario unfolds routinely and no suspicious vessels have recently been apprehended and prosecuted in Namibia, reported senior researcher Carina Bruwer of Enhancing Africa’s Response to Transnational Organized Crime  project. Namibian waters are regularly targeted by foreign fishing…

In a continent brimming with conflict, Kenya stands as an example of effective peacebuilding. Borne of its own past struggles with violence, Kenya adopted a decentralized approach that focuses on community participation. It was so successful that the government institutionalized and still helps to maintain local peace committees (LPCs) today. Experts say there are valuable lessons for other countries to learn. “Kenya has been praised as a model for the world when it comes to peacebuilding efforts to manage outbreaks of violence within its borders. The country has systematically put in place a peacebuilding architecture rooted in a history of…

Shipments of high-tech weapons from Yemen’s Houthi rebels to terror groups in Somalia could undermine security across the Horn of Africa, experts say. The past year has seen a flow of drones and other weaponry across the Gulf of Aden from Yemen to Somalia at a time when al-Shabaab and Islamic State-Somalia (ISSOM) have suffered territorial losses at the hands of the Somali National Army and its allies. The capture of seven men by Puntland regional authorities in 2024 demonstrated the growing bond between Houthis and Somali terror groups. Security officials discovered that the men were transporting five kamikaze drones…

Mustafa Ibrahim was in a financial bind. The 48-year-old was a welder in a suburb of Lagos, Nigeria, but business had been slow. One night in April 2024, Ibrahim returned home and went online, where he saw a WhatsApp video of an old friend who asked viewers to join him in Burkina Faso. In the video, Ibrahim’s friend spoke knowledgeably about Burkinabe cities and glowingly of Capt. Ibrahim Traoré, Burkina Faso’s junta leader. Ibrahim was impressed by his friend’s expertise and sent him a message about jobs in Burkina Faso. “Three days later, he said I needed N1.15m [$1,775] to process…