ADF

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) on March 13 announced the termination and phased withdrawal of its military mission in the embattled eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), where M23 rebels have gained ground. The decision was foreshadowed by the late February repatriation of about 200 troops with the SADC Mission in the DRC (SAMIDRC). These Soldiers, from Malawi, South Africa and Tanzania, had been confined to their bases in M23-held territory and complained of a lack of food, supplies and medical care. Analysts say the M23 outgunned and outmaneuvered the mission with high-tech weaponry. SAMIDRC troops were meant…

The Islamic State group (IS) aims to expand its terrorism beyond the Sahel region and into North Africa and West Africa, analysts say. Beverly Ochieng, a senior analyst at geopolitical risk consultancy Control Risks, said IS is focused on exploiting security gaps in areas it views as vulnerable. “Because the counterinsurgency infrastructure in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger has been compromised, then it allows them to make inroads into other countries that they perceive to be vulnerable,” Ochieng told Voice of America. On March 24, at least 12 Cameroonian Soldiers were killed and more than 12 wounded during a nighttime…

Longtime mistrust between South Sudan’s top two political leaders threatens to reignite civil war in the country seven years after a peace deal ended the previous one. At the heart of growing tensions is the relationship between President Salva Kiir and his rival, First Vice President Riek Machar. Both men control armed forces. Kiir controls the South Sudan People’s Defence Force (SSPDF), and Machar control his own militia, known as the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-in-Opposition (SPLM-IO). Both men also have other armed groups willing to fight alongside them in a country awash in militias and weapons. South Sudan’s post-independence civil…

Less than two weeks after 50 million liters of toxic mining waste burst from the Sino-Metals Leach copper mine into the Kafue River, three Zambian government ministers conducted a surprise visit to another Chinese-owned mine 11 kilometers away where authorities previously had suspended operations due to environmental noncompliance. On March 1, at the Rongxing Mineral Processing Plant, they found acid leaking from the same kind of tailings dam that collapsed at Sino-Metals on February 18, causing the country’s worst environmental disaster in years. A livid Collins Nzovu, minister of Water Development and Sanitation, spoke to reporters after seeing the leaky…

A Zambia Air Force pilot flew his helicopter close enough to the ground to see riverbanks full of dead fish. He was tasked in late February with assessing the environmental damage of a massive spill of concentrated acid and toxic heavy metals from a Chinese-owned copper mine that contaminated the Kafue River, the country’s most important waterway. “You could see a layer of oil or film over the water,” he told ADF. “It looked a bit white-ish, cream-colored, and we saw a lot of dead fish. We put lime in the water to raise the pH level. It took us…

As the role that artificial intelligence plays in society increases, African nations must factor the technology into their national security plans, according to experts in the field. “AI strategy can be considered a sectoral strategy within the larger security framework,” Joel Amegboh, a security expert at the African Center for Strategic Studies, said during a recent webinar. “That could allow governments to integrate AI as a critical tool to enhance national intelligence, law enforcement, national defense or economic development.” AI has the potential to improve defensive capabilities, whether the task is predicting terrorist attacks or forecasting maintenance schedules for key…

In nearly two years of fighting, Sudan’s civil war has been marked by seemingly ceaseless violence and brutality. But a disturbing new report from the United Nations has shed light on the extent of sexual violence against children. Sexual violence perpetrated by members of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) and the opposing Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) is known to be rampant, as the U.N. reported that the number of survivors of gender-based violence seeking services increased by 288% in 2024. In a March report, the U.N. children’s agency analyzed data that showed 221 reports of rape against children in…

Drones have become a major component of military campaigns across Africa in recent years. Although they have led to some key gains by security forces, their expanded use has consequences for civilians. A new report by Drone Wars UK, a British nongovernmental organization that researches the use of armed drones and other technology, found that nearly 1,000 civilians have been killed by drones in 50 incidents since late 2021. In Sudan, for example, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) recently claimed to have shot down 100 drones in 100 days during its ongoing battle with the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF).…

Islamic State West Africa Province extremists have begun using weaponized drones in their attacks against government forces in the Lake Chad Basin, marking a major shift in tactics for the terrorist group. Like many other extremists, the group also known as ISWAP previously used small, commercially available drones for intelligence-gathering and creating propaganda videos. Fighters used drones to monitor troop movements and to film their forces in training camps as a way to recruit new members. In 2022, ISWAP released a video showing aerial video of military camps and vehicles that it said it had filmed using drones to spy…

Experts are alarmed at growing violence in the Sahel and the possibility of extremist groups consolidating gains to form a terror state. Last year, Burkina Faso was the country most affected by terrorism worldwide, according to the Global Terrorism Index, and armed groups now control more than half of the country. Mali was ranked third and Niger 10th. The military juntas in these countries used insecurity to justify seizing power. However, terrorist attacks in the region have doubled and resulting deaths have tripled since 2021, analyst Michael DeAngelo wrote for the Foreign Policy Research Institute. Extremists have taken control of…