ADF

ADF STAFF Constance was 13 years old when she left her home in North Kivu province in the east of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to join a militia called the Alliance of Patriots for a Free and Sovereign Congo. Child soldiers are known as kadogos, which means “little ones” in Swahili. Despite her small stature, she carried rocket-propelled grenades and supported fighters on the battlefront against M23 rebels. “I went to war,” she told The Guardian from a displacement camp near the provincial capital, Goma. “It was a nightmare.” Experts say the recruitment of children has surged since…

ADF STAFF As part of the fight against illegal fishing, drug and human trafficking, piracy, oil theft, and other sea crimes in the Gulf of Guinea, navies and coast guards from more than two dozen countries participated in the Grand African Navy Exercise for Maritime Operations (NEMO) 2024. The exercise, an annual maritime security event led by the French Navy, focused on strengthening coordination across five operational zones in the Gulf of Guinea. It was launched at the Multinational Maritime Coordination Centre in Accra, Ghana. At the opening ceremony, Ghana Chief of Naval Staff Issah Adam Yakubu said that the exercise…

ADF STAFF Before it gained independence in 1957, Ghana was a British colony known as the Gold Coast. An old saying grew popular: “There is no land in Ghana which doesn’t have gold, even in the topsoil. Ghana is gold.” Today, Ghana is the largest producer of gold on the continent and the sixth largest in the world, but it is struggling to address widespread illegal gold mining, called “galamsey” by locals, who say it pollutes the country and threatens the economy. Ghanaian miners used to extract gold from shallow depths using shovels, picks, pans and their hands. Today, galamseyers…

ADF STAFF Former Sudanese Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok says it is up to the people of his country, aided by the international community, to end the brutal war that has shattered Sudan since April 2023. “The primary responsibility for stopping this war rests with the Sudanese people,” Hamdok recently told DW during an hourlong interview. “If we are able to unite in a broad front that brings everybody together against the war, that will form the first step in stopping this war. But, also, we don’t live in isolation. We need the support that will be brought by the regional…

ADF STAFF A terror organization known as Lukarawas is sowing fear in northwest Nigeria’s Kebbi and Sokoto states, an area in which Boko Haram, the Islamic State West African Province and bandit gangs continuously wreak havoc. On November 9, Lukarawas, which is linked to the Islamic State group (IS), is accused of killing 15 people in Mera, a Kebbi State town, and stealing a large number of cattle. “As of now we are yet to ascertain the identity of the attackers,” Superintendent of Police Nafiu Abubakar, Kebbi State Police spokesperson, told Sahara Reporters. “It’s too early to confirm whether the…

ADF STAFF Thousands of members of the Dar Hamar tribe gathered for a rally in support of the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in Sudan’s West Kordofan region in mid-November. In one of only a handful of places in West Kordofan still controlled by the Sudanese military, they chanted, “One Army, One People” and “All Strength, Onward to Fula,” according to the Sudan War Monitor. “The depths of the earth are preferable to the surface if the Rapid Support Forces [RSF] invade our land,” emir Abdulqadir Moniem Mansour, leader of the Arab Hamar tribes, said to the crowd. There was not…

ADF STAFF Nigeria’s so-called Yahoo Boys begin learning the tricks of online fraud early. They’re often as young as 12 when they are recruited into the country’s cybercrime training network known as “hustle kingdom.” By the time they graduate from high school, many Yahoo Boys are skilled at deceiving online victims through a variety of schemes, from scams that extort victims through online dating sites to phishing emails designed to trick recipients into opening their computer networks to attacks. “Tackling this issue requires urgent attention at both local and global levels,” Suleman Lazarus, a Nigerian cybercrime expert, wrote in The…

ADF STAFF Sudan’s warring sides are turning their attention to an institution they see as a common enemy: the country’s independent media. Cyberattacks have become the weapon of choice for the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) as they seek to shut down media outlets to control Sudan’s information space. “This war is largely a media war driven by misinformation,” Montaser Abdelwahid, editor-in-chief of Sudan-based Medameek, told Radio Dabanga. “They are killing the truth by obstructing reports on the horrific attacks taking place.” Radio Dabanga is an independent news outlet covering Sudan from its base in…

ADF STAFF The United Nations recently marked an important anniversary on the continent — 25 years of actively protecting civilians with its peacekeeping missions. On October 22, 1999, the U.N. Security Council ended its observer mission in Sierra Leone and established a new mission, UNAMSIL, with a new mandate permitting its troops to use force. It represented a major shift in the U.N.’s approach to peacekeeping. The Security Council in 1999 outlined how UNAMSIL troops were mandated to “take the necessary action in the discharge of its mandate to ensure the security and freedom of movement of its personnel and,…

ADF STAFF Tedla Hirigo, 17, worked as a street vendor in Adama city in Ethiopia’s Oromia region on November 11 when police detained him. “When I visited the station in the evening, officers told me that he would be sent to a military training camp unless I paid 30,000 birr for his release,” Tedla’s mother told Ethiopian newspaper The Addis Standard. She said Tedla was her family’s primary source of income. “He was raised without a father, and we don’t have the financial means to pay such a large sum.” Multiple sources report that the federal government is forcibly conscripting…