ADF

About a dozen Malian soldiers and Russian mercenaries died in a recent ambush by terrorists near the city of Nampala near Mali’s border with Mauritania. Al-Qaida-aligned Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) took credit for the attack near the community of Louguel in early March that killed at least 11 people, including three mercenaries with Russia’s Africa Corps. The ambush followed the deaths of seven Malian civilians killed by the Malian Armed Forces and Africa Corps a few days earlier. According to reports, soldiers and mercenaries encountered a group of unarmed Malian civilians on March 6 driving from Fassala, Mauritania, to…

Senegal’s eastern Bakel Department has become the focal point for the government’s effort to prevent terrorist incursions from Mali. Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) is trying to exploit a variety of issues confronting the region on both sides of the Falémé River to expand its reach. The problems include porous borders, crime and damage caused by gold mining. So far, however, JNIM’s cross-border activity has been sporadic. In September 2025, JNIM fighters kidnapped six Senegalese truck drivers for 24 hours. The kidnapping was part of the group’s attempt to strangle economic activity in Bamako, which relies on trucks traveling from…

Niger’s western Tillabéri region has emerged as the deadliest area in the central Sahel for civilians due to an uptick in attacks by terror groups such as the Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP) and Jama’at Nusrat al‑Islam wal‑Muslimin (JNIM), According to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED), more than 1,200 of the 1,939 deaths recorded in Niger last year were in Tillabéri. The ISSP accounted for the largest number of fatalities from attacks on civilians, followed by operations by the Nigerien military and JNIM, which is affiliated with al-Qaida. “Violence in Tillabéri was geographically widespread across many of…

In a first, the African Land Forces Summit was held in Europe and included representatives from the defense industry. The annual summit, sponsored by U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF), took place March 23 and 24 in Rome and drew more than 300 participants from 47 countries. It was the 13th iteration of the event and the first to take place outside of Africa since 2022. Col. William Daniel, SETAF-AF’s director of security cooperation, said the goal of the event was to match ideas with “proven, scalable solutions” to Africa’s security challenges. Of the industry leaders there displaying…

Chadian President Mahamat Déby has ordered his military to retaliate against attacks originating in Sudan after a drone killed 17 people during a funeral in Al-Tina, a border town. Déby denounced the mid-March attack, calling it “outrageous and a blatant aggression” that violated Chad’s territorial integrity. It was not clear whether the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) or paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) launched the attack. The two sides have been embroiled in a civil war since April 2023, and Chad increasingly has been caught in the fray. Two Chadian troops were killed in a late December 2025 strike on an…

A new report documents the huge scale of illegal activity by Chinese “floating fish factories” that set up off the coast of Guinea-Bissau and harvest marine resources by the ton. The Hua Xin 17, listed as a 125-meter Chinese cargo ship in maritime databases, was anchored for 157 days in 2025 about 50 kilometers off the coast of Orango Island, part of Guinea-Bissau’s protected Bijagós archipelago. The Tian Yi He 6, also listed as a cargo vessel, spent 244 days about 60 kilometers from the island last year. An investigation by The Guardian and DeSmog, an investigative journalism organization, showed…

Somalia’s al-Shabaab terrorists and Yemen’s Houthi militants have long been known to cooperate across the Red Sea, capitalizing on entrenched networks that enable all kinds of illicit commerce back and forth from East Africa to the Arabian Peninsula. Now, however, evidence indicates that links forged more than a decade ago might be taking on a more tangible, and dangerous, character. “The cooperation is now advancing beyond fundamental logistical and intelligence coordination into political, media and direct military collaboration,” according to a 39-page February 2026 report by Somalia’s Mogadishu-based Saldhig Institute research organization. “We were aware that the relationship was very…

Coastal West African countries are strengthening counterterrorism partnerships after the 2025 rupture with Sahelian nations that crippled the G5 Sahel Joint Force and other regional security structures. Beninese and Nigerian military leaders recently met to discuss a joint operation along their shared border with Niger, which has become a hot spot for terrorism spilling over from Niger’s Dosso province. According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project (ACLED), attacks by Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) and Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP) across the region grew 86% from about 150 in 2024 to about 280 in 2025. Civilian fatalities…

Nine months after Russia replaced and rebranded its mercenaries in Mali as Africa Corps, the mercenaries’ involvement in counterterrorism there has dropped off dramatically, leaving Malian soldiers to carry more of the burden. According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project (ACLED), battles involving Russian fighters in Mali dropped from 537 to 402 between 2024 and 2025, a reduction of more than 33%. ACLED reported just 24 incidents per month since the beginning of 2026. Russia’s shrinking battlefield footprint coincided with the deployment of Africa Corps and its more hands-off approach compared to Wagner’s frequent use of brutal…

A disagreement between Kenya and Somalia continues over a 92,389-square-kilometer maritime zone that has long attracted international energy companies. The United Nations’ International Court of Justice (ICJ) in 2021 awarded Somalia control of most of the area, but Kenya rejected the legally binding ruling over which the court has no enforcement powers. The countries differ over which direction the boundary follows into the Indian Ocean. Experts such as Siyad Madey, a Kenyan lawyer and policy analyst, say the dispute centers on the question of how much potential energy wealth lies beneath the contested waters, which form part of the Lamu Basin that…