ADF

ADF STAFF Sitting in the ochre dirt courtyard of her home in Pala in southwest Chad, Béatrice Naguita stared blankly into the distance as she recounted her April 2023 ordeal. “Around 1:00 a.m., armed men came into my father’s house and abducted us with my cousin,” the 22-year-old student told Agence France-Presse. “For two weeks as captives in the brush, while my father got together the sum demanded, we were tortured. As a woman, I lost my dignity.” To the people who live in the tri-border region where southwest Chad and northwest Central African Republic (CAR) meet Cameroon’s North Region,…

ADF STAFF The U.S. is on track to withdraw forces from Niger more than a month ahead of schedule. The departure that began with a televised demand by Niger’s ruling junta in March and the signing of withdrawal terms on May 19 is ending with close cooperation between the two countries and some optimism for future partnerships. Maj. Gen. Kenneth Ekman, U.S. Department of Defense West Africa Coordination Element Lead, U.S. Africa Command, said that the two sides relied on a nearly two-decade working relationship to ensure a smooth process. “Because we know them, we could build on that. It…

ADF STAFF In Somalia, terror group al-Shabaab has spent years gaining and losing ground. But in the digital domain, al-Shabaab has limitless space in which to expand. It’s where one of the world’s best-financed terror groups spreads its propaganda, disinformation and recruiting messages throughout the region, the continent and the world. Shahada News Agency, one of al-Shabaab’s most prominent online messengers, recently announced it is expanding its coverage “to include all countries of the Islamic world.” By expanding its digital reach, al-Shabaab has signaled a desire to compete with the continent’s other violent extremist organizations for prominence. Several regional terror…

ADF STAFF For the past six months, Iran has supplied the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) with weapons, a strategy some analysts believe is designed to pave the way for an Iranian naval presence on Sudan’s Red Sea coast. To date, Sudan has refused the request for an Iranian helicopter carrier on its coast. However, observers believe the SAF may soften that position as its war with the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) grinds on. “We think that Khartoum will not be able to withstand Iranian pressure,” analysts with the Robert Lansing Institute for Global Threats and Democracies Studies wrote recently. Iranian…

ADF STAFF The seemingly intractable conflict between the M23 rebel group and security forces in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo has some observers pressing for an alternative solution to avoid a regional war in the heart of Africa. “A military option is clearly not adequate to address the deep-seated historical, ethnic and resource-based fault lines throughout central Africa, as they play out in the DRC,” Anthoni van Nieuwkerk of the Thabo Mbeki African School of Public and International Affairs at the University of South Africa wrote recently in The Conversation. “To augment stabilization measures, African leaders must pursue diplomatic…

ADF STAFF More than 542,000 internally displaced people (IDP) in northern Mozambique’s conflict-torn Cabo Delgado province face dire humanitarian conditions amid an insurgency that has raged since 2017. As the Institute for Security Studies (ISS) reported, many IDPs there have limited access to food, shelter, water, sanitation, health and education. They also struggle to find work and are at greater risk of disease outbreaks and gender-based violence. About 55% of them are hosted by local populations while the rest live in 190 displacement sites. In Pemba, home to about 132,000 IDPs, the number of unemployed youths and beggars is growing. Women…

ADF STAFF Nigeria’s National Drug Law Enforcement Agency (NDLEA) busted a major drug cartel with operations in Imo and Rivers States in mid-July. Authorities arrested the cartel’s leader and one of his associates for allegedly distributing large amounts of methamphetamine throughout south and southeastern Nigeria. Confiscated from the cartel leader’s Imo State mansion were about 420 grams of methamphetamine and chemicals used to make the drug. One week earlier, Nigerian authorities arrested a couple accused of packaging, distributing and trafficking $1.3 million worth of cocaine in and outside Nigeria. These operations are part of Nigeria’s ongoing efforts to curb escalating…

ADF STAFF A loss of territory and manpower have resulted in Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) unleashing suicide attacks in Nigeria, analysts say. On one day in late June, three suicide bombers, each female, killed 32 people and wounded at least 42 at three locations in Gwoza, Borno State, near the Cameroonian border: at a wedding celebration, near a hospital and at a funeral service for victims of an earlier bombing. A fourth incident involved no casualties other than the female bomber. They were the first suicide bombings in northeast Nigeria in about four years.…

ADF STAFF Sahelian junta leaders claim their new regional bloc will help them fight extremists and share economic resources. However, observers believe the turn inward, combined with a shift toward Russia, is likely to worsen the violence and insecurity that plagues all three countries. In early July, the military leaders of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger signed documents creating the Confederation of Sahel States (CES), the successor to the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), a mutual defense pact created in September 2023, less than two months after Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum’s presidential guard overthrew him. Along with creating the new…

ADF STAFF Rampant terrorism has destabilized the Sahel for years and played a role in military coups in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Despite their promises of security, the juntas have largely failed to stop terror attacks. Hundreds of Russian mercenaries are in the region and have been accused of widespread human rights abuses. Now another contingent of mercenaries has entered the fray, facilitated by a Turkish private military company called Sadat. “All three countries rely on Turkish drones and have close personal contacts in the Turkish defense industry,” analyst Liam Karr, of the Institute for the Study of War,…