ADF

A complex war economy has emerged in Sudan that is depleting the country’s natural resources and fueling violence. Intense fighting between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has devastated the economy, and neither side has achieved military victory or begun earnest negotiations for a ceasefire. “External financing and the unimpeded supply of weapons have motivated both factions to prioritize military maximalism,” researcher and analyst Carlota Ahrens Teixeira wrote in a May 7 report for Geopolitical Intelligence Services (GIS). “The sides can continue to fight thanks to illicit financial flows and non-state aligned logistics networks…

When Maj. Gen. Al-Nour Ahmed “al-Qubba” Adam defected from Sudan’s paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in April, he brought a trove of assets with him. Al-Qubba gave the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) more than 130 combat vehicles, a group of loyalists, high-level tactical intelligence and years of brutal battlefield experience. Al-Qubba is one of several top RSF commanders who have recently left to join the SAF. Brig. Gen. Ali “Al-Safna” Rizqallah left the RSF one month after Al-Qubba. Al-Safna played key roles in the battles of Kordofan and El-Fasher. These defections and others led “some to wonder whether the tide…

Several African nations have signed military cooperation agreements with Russia, pinning their hopes on Moscow as they confront jihadist insurgencies. So far, however, that does not appear to be a winning strategy, analysts say. In 2025, Togo joined the list of African nations seeking Russian military training and intelligence sharing as it deals with violence spreading from the Sahel into its northernmost province. Russia has had mercenaries — first Wagner Group, now Africa Corps — stationed in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger for several years. The fighters were invited into the region to help the ruling juntas defeat terrorist groups…

With control of nearly 90% of Zimbabwe’s mining industry, Chinese companies are facing a new level of scrutiny, particularly in the lithium sector. Local communities, civil society and environmental groups have accused mining operations of widespread exploitation and abuse. Zimbabwe sits on the largest lithium deposits on the continent and the sixth-largest reserves in the world. Mining is central to the economy, accounting for about 14.5% of gross domestic product and 75% of national exports. In 2025, Zimbabwe exported 1.128 million metric tons of lithium-bearing spodumene concentrate to China, 11% more than in 2024. But accusations of malpractice and the…

Russia’s Africa Corps is shifting fighters out of Mali’s northern regions to protect the capital and the ruling junta while providing air support and intelligence to Malian soldiers in the field. “By and large they are taking more of a backseat role,” Benedict Manzin, lead Middle East and Africa analyst for U.K.-based intelligence firm Sybiline, told ADF. “They’re doing everything they can to avoid having to feed more bodies into the meat grinder,” he added. “They’re trying to minimize personnel exposure and maximize the damage they can do.” Africa Corps replaced notorious Wagner Group mercenaries in mid-2024. The switch came…

Artificial intelligence plays an increasing role in the way security services respond to disasters and humanitarian crises like floods and disease outbreaks. However, this technology relies on human expertise to analyze and develop strategies based on the data those systems produce. That was the assessment of a group of experts in both artificial intelligence and disaster management assembled recently by the Stimson Center think tank. “In a lot of cases, AI models present a very definitive answer, but there still is inherent uncertainty,” Aaron Opdyke, a disaster risk specialist with the World Bank, said during a panel discussion. “We still…

Since Sudan’s civil war began in 2023, there has been widespread fear that prolonged fighting could spill across its borders and spark broader conflict in the Horn of Africa. In early May, a barrage of drone strikes hit Khartoum’s airport and upended what had been a burgeoning sense of normalcy in the Sudanese capital. The drones targeted civilian terminals and struck a radar and an air defense system just one week after 300 citizens returned on the first international flight since the war began. “The episode marks a dangerous escalation in what has become one of the world’s most tangled…

Guineans received surprising news in late March, when the government announced that it had dismantled a suspected terrorist network linked to the al-Qaida-affiliated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM). A nationwide counterterrorism operation in 2025 yielded the arrests of 11 people, including a Malian man named Fotigui Daou, who admitted his involvement in a longstanding hostage-for-ransom operation that helped finance JNIM operations. “Judicial investigations have revealed that a group of 11 individuals, including seven Malians, two Nigeriens, one Burkinabe and one Guinean, were arrested in April 2025 in the prefectures of Siguiri, Mandiana, and Kankan,” Prosecutor General Fallou Doumbouya said in…

Illegal Chinese miners in Mali have increasingly come under attack from Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), a powerful coalition of Sahelian terrorist groups affiliated with al-Qaida. Adama Koné, a Sikasso-based radio analyst on politics and security, said the terror group is using the money it makes from kidnapping and extortion to finance its war against Mali’s ruling military junta. “The group does not seek to control the mines,” he told The Africa Report for a May 28 article. “It needs only to tax the informal mining sector and to control the chokepoints through which gold must pass.” Several deadly attacks and…

Three Mexican nationals were among nine people arrested by Nigerian authorities on May 20 at the largest industrial-scale methamphetamine laboratory ever discovered in the country. Officials found the lab on a remote farm in Ogun State’s Abidagba forest. According to Nigeria’s National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, authorities seized chemicals worth $363 million, including crystal meth, and the operation included raids on two homes in an upscale neighborhood in Lagos. Agency Chair retired Brig. Gen. Mohammed Buba Marwa said the operations exposed a “sophisticated, transnational methamphetamine production syndicate run jointly by a Nigerian drug cartel and their Mexican counterparts.” “This network did…