ADF

Sudan’s civil war began as a struggle between two rival factions, but the battle is growing more complex as armed civilian groups, rebel fighters, and tribal and regional militias have joined the grinding, back-and-forth fray. The paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) controlled the capital, Khartoum, for two years until March, when the national Sudan Armed Forces (SAF), led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, reclaimed it with the help of armed civilians. “Khartoum was not just a battlefield defeat for the RSF,” Mohamed Saad, a researcher at Charles University in the Czech Republic, wrote for The Conversation. “It was a turning…

Frikkie the rhino was poached and killed years ago, but today she has a new purpose at South Africa’s Wildlife Forensic Academy. In a large, breezy warehouse inside the private Buffelsfontein Game and Nature Reserve, an hour north of Cape Town, Frikkie is one of several animals preserved by taxidermy, painted with fake blood and posed in mock crime scenes amid plants and trees. Students wearing white hazmat suits and blue latex gloves search the grounds for clues as trainers teach them how to find, document and secure evidence before chemically analyzing it in an on-site laboratory. Academy Director of…

High above Morocco’s Kenitra Air Base, Moroccan and United States military medical teams tended to a wounded Soldier on a Moroccan C-130H Hercules transport aircraft. The teams had evacuated the Soldier and worked to stabilize him before transferring him to a hospital. Over Marrakesh, a U.S. Air Force KC-135R Stratotanker streaked across the sky alongside a Royal Moroccan Air Force F-16 fighter jet. In a complex maneuver, the Moroccan jet flew precisely underneath the Stratotanker and performed an air-to-air “dry contact” refueling pass. These events unfolded during African Lion 2025 (AL25), the continent’s largest annual joint military exercise. U.S. Army…

The photos displayed for the gathering of military leaders were alarming. One showed a still from a TikTok video claiming that French fighter jets had bombed the Ivoirian Air Force. Another post declared that Côte d’Ivoire’s chief of army staff had died. Both were lies. “As you can see, he is not dead,” Maj. Guéable Hervé Zeni of Côte d’Ivoire said, gesturing to his commander, who was seated in the audience at the African Land Forces Summit. “He is here with us.” As chief of the Cyber Defense Office of the Armed Forces of Côte d’Ivoire, Zeni leads a team…

Burkina Faso’s leader appeared in a music video with global superstar Beyoncé. Or did he? In fact, the video, which included the song lyrics, “God protect Ibrahim Traoré in the battle for the people’s path, breaking the chains of the empire’s grip,” is just one of hundreds of fakes littering social media sites across the region, according to the BBC. The reach of these videos, known as deepfakes, spans the continent from Ghana to Kenya. They promote Traoré, a military junta captain who took control of the nation in a 2022 coup, as a model of leadership and a hero…

Li Song portrayed herself as a legitimate businesswoman in Zimbabwe, but that portrayal masked a dark reality. Authorities say the woman now known as the “Ivory Queen” or “Cyanide Queen” led a wildlife poaching ring that captured African elephants and shipped them to China. Last year, she was arrested and charged with fraud, perjury and illegally sending foreign money to Chinese accounts. Song, 53, was accused of importing 40 tons of sodium cyanide and hydrated lime from Mauritius to her company, DGL9 Investments, to avoid paying an excise tax. This violated health and environmental laws and public safety protocols. She…

A kamikaze drone attack on Sudan’s wartime capital, Port Sudan, in early May threatens to turn Sudan’s 3-year-old conflict into a broader regional war, according to a Sudanese official. The attack has implications for Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, which support opposing sides in the conflict. “Until recently, this conflict could be described as a proxy war [between Turkey and the UAE]. However, it has taken a dangerous turn, verging on a regional war, with the UAE’s barely concealed direct intervention,” Babikir Elamin, Sudan’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, recently told the U.K. parliament. The fighting that began in…

The Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) group has launched at least 12 attacks on military bases and infrastructure across northeast Nigeria since March. The brazen attacks that employ drones carrying grenades and bombs placed near roads and bridges are alarming observers. The attacks are also evidence of a terror group with significant sources of funding. The terror group has moved beyond collecting ransoms and taxes. It has transformed parts of northeastern Nigeria into a conflict-driven economy through a complex blend of taxation, extortion, smuggling and ideological justification, HumAngle reported. ISWAP has turned to the dark web to generate revenue by exploiting the…

Terrorist groups such as Boko Haram and al-Shabaab have long had a simple philosophy for controlling the people they can’t win over: Take away their food. For years, their attacks against markets, supply sources and farmers have reduced food availability. They have contaminated and destroyed farmland in ways that make it unusable for years. In a 2025 study, researchers Simone Papale and Emanuele Castelli quoted a farmer in Somalia as saying, “wherever al-Shabaab goes, drought follows.” Warfare and terrorist violence always have been linked to food security problems, starvation and famine. Terrorism can cause food disruptions, undermining production systems and…

The military government of Niger has terminated its intelligence cooperation with Russia and Turkey, saying the surveillance systems and related personnel failed to live up to expectations. Niger’s General Directorate of Documentation and External Security was particularly upset with the quality of telephone communications interceptions, according to Military Africa. Niger instead turned to a Moroccan company specializing in digital intelligence. That deal soured quickly when Niger learned that the company had an indirect connection with France. Since the July 2023 military coup that ousted President Mohamed Bazoum, the Niger junta’s foreign policy has excluded traditional Western partners. Since that time,…