ADF

Charities and Nonprofits Can Be Co-opted to Fund Terrorism, So Vigilance and Monitoring Are Crucial ADF STAFF About 10:30 a.m. Nairobi time on August 7, 1998, a truck loaded with more than 900 kilograms of TNT trundled up to the back entrance of the U.S. Embassy in Kenya. Seconds later, the truck exploded, damaging the embassy, destroying the Ufundi Cooperative House nearby, and ravaging the Cooperative Bank building. The explosion killed 213 people and wounded thousands, with hundreds of them maimed or blinded. Minutes later, a bomb detonated outside the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. That explosion killed 11 and…

Early Warning Systems Help with Alerts, Defections These days, the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) can scarcely make a move without it being documented and passed on. Consider these incidents: January 10, 2014 – A 38-year-old LRA soldier who spent 20 years in captivity defects in Djemah in the Central African Republic (CAR) after walking six days in the bush. He had listened to radio broadcasts urging LRA members to give up their arms. February 9, 2014 – After hearing defection messages over helicopter speakers, four Ugandan LRA soldiers defect to security forces. They had been in captivity for 12 years. March 1,…

Africa’s Police Are on the Front Lines of the Fight Against Extremism ADF STAFF Photos by Reuters Fighting terror goes beyond military confrontations and high-profile missions like special forces raids to free hostages. The day-to-day work of dismantling terror networks is much more mundane. It involves traffic stops, passport verification, community outreach and intelligence gathering. Often police with deep knowledge of their communities are in the best position to accomplish the work. This is especially true in large, diverse metropolitan areas. But not all police departments have embraced counterterror work or have been trained to do so. Research by security experts…

After Setbacks in Somalia, al-Shabaab Militants Stage High-Profile Attacks in Neighboring Countries ADF STAFF As al-Shabaab terrorists stalked through Nairobi’s Westgate Shopping Mall, Faith Wambua and her two children lay still. The mother was sprawled face down on a tiled floor next to her 9-year-old daughter, Sy, and 21-month-old son, Ty. Wambua grabbed a shard of broken glass and held it out to her son, who is fascinated by — and a little scared of — insects, saying: “ ‘Look, dudu’ — dudu is a Swahili word for an insect. I said: ‘Ty, look. Dudu is coming to bite you.’…

REUTERS The 2013 winner of the Tour de France, Chris Froome, says Kenya has a rich pool of endurance athletes and that the next great cyclist is out there somewhere. Kenyan-born Froome said his country’s success in middle- and long-distance running shows that the East African nation is awash with gifted athletes capable of competing in the world’s toughest endurance races. “It seems that there is so much talent here,” Froome told reporters in Nairobi as he sat next to Kenyan rider David Kinjah, who was his childhood mentor. “You just have to look at the natural ability of runners…

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE A long-awaited film on the life of anti-apartheid hero Nelson Mandela premiered in his native South Africa on November 3, 2013, stirring emotional memories of the country’s turbulent history. The film opened a month before Mandela died at age 95. The movie Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom, largely based on his autobiography of the same title, traces the life of the revered leader from his childhood in the rural Eastern Cape to his election as the country’s first black president in 1994. After spending 27 years in prison for activism against the racist regime, he preached equality and…

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Togo’s first competitor at the Winter Olympics, cross-country skier Mathilde-Amivi Petitjean, did not expect to win a medal at the 2014 games in Sochi, Russia. Instead, she hoped to inspire African athletes to compete in winter sports. “I think all the people in all [African] countries are happy for me,” said Petitjean, who turned 20 a week after the race. “It’s good for African countries that they see it’s possible to participate in the Winter Olympic Games.” Petitjean crossed the line in the women’s 10-kilometer classical race February 13, 2014, in 68th place, less than 10 minutes…

REUTERS The European Union has signed a development grant with Ethiopia worth $287.26 million to help finance road construction and projects targeting maternal health and drought resilience. As of 2014, Ethiopia, Africa’s second-most-populous country after Nigeria, was midway through a five-year economic plan that foresees almost tripling the country’s road network and beginning the building of 5,000 kilometers of new railway lines. Addis Ababa’s big infrastructure push is aimed at connecting remote regions and has propelled the economy to double-digit growth for much of the past decade. Once run by communists, Ethiopia’s economy is now Sub-Saharan Africa’s fifth-biggest, leap-frogging Kenya…

REUTERS At Cape Town’s Elswood Secondary School, even the metal grills welded into its walls did not deter burglars from ripping out the copper cables that delivered Internet service to the students. But Elswood’s pupils were saved by alternative technology — free wireless connection via unused parts of the TV spectrum known as white space. It’s being provided by a consortium led by Google as part of a wider trial. Africa is the world’s last major untapped market for Internet access. Only 16 percent of its billion people use the Internet — half the penetration rate of Asia, according to…

REUTERS Tanzania, famed for its safari parks beneath snow-capped Mount Kilimanjaro, estimated that it attracted 40 percent more tourists in 2013 than in 2012. The country estimated it hosted 1.5 million visitors as it broke into new Asian markets. In the year ending in September 2013, tourism earned more hard currency than gold exports for the first time in years. Tourism raked in $1.8 billion in the 12 months ending in September 2013, up from $1.61 billion a year earlier. The country is intensifying efforts to tackle poaching of elephant ivory and rhino horns. Poaching has surged across Sub-Saharan Africa,…