ADF

In the cattle markets of northern Ghana, butchers and brokers have decades of experience buying cattle from herders in Burkina Faso. Lately, the people selling livestock have been looking for quick sales and taking unusually low payments, a likely sign that the cattle are stolen. “In the past, there was sometimes stolen livestock in the market,” a butcher identified by the pseudonym Endinene told The New Humanitarian. “But it was small amounts, and not frequent. However, since the war began, everything has changed.” These days, Endinene estimates that half of the cattle he buys are stolen. The sellers accept half…

APT41 is a well-known cybercriminal syndicate with many aliases: Wicked Panda, Barium, Brass Typhoon and Winnti. The group is notorious for targeting organizations across multiple sectors, including telecom and energy providers, educational institutions, and health care organizations in at least 42 countries. Regardless of its name, the group is known to be a Chinese state-backed hacking operation with a decided focus on cyber espionage. In July, a cybersecurity company revealed that its detection and response experts “observed a cyber espionage attack on a Southern African organization and linked it to the Chinese-speaking group APT41.” “This incident reveals that the attackers…

Terrorists have killed more than 150,000 people across Africa over the past decade, with most of that violence taking place in the Sahel, Somalia, and the Lake Chad basin, according to new research by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies. Since 2016, when Somalia was the focal point for terrorist violence, the number of attacks, terrorist groups and regions affected have grown. Many of those groups claim allegiance to al-Qaida or the Islamic State group (IS). The death count escalated rapidly after coups in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Those coups were driven to some degree by claims that the…

Cybercrime is a growing threat in Africa, accounting for nearly a third of all crime in some regions. And the scale and scope of attacks is rising. Hackers increasingly weaponize cyberattacks against corporations and public infrastructure, rather than simply stealing personal data from individuals. A recent report by Interpol concludes that cybercrimes make up 30% of all crime in West and East Africa, based on a survey of the international law enforcement agency’s African members. The survey determined that cybercrimes make up 10% to 30% of crimes in Southern and Central Africa and less than 10% in North Africa. “Cybersecurity…

The modern incarnation of fighters for hire in Africa, known as private military companies (PMCs), such as Russia’s Wagner Group, now the Africa Corps — trade security guarantees and counterterrorism pledges for money and natural resource concessions, especially in the Sahel. Now “a more decentralized and entrepreneurial phenomenon has emerged: the rise of jihadist private military contractors,” according to an article by Aries D. Russell for Aries Intelligence. “These are seasoned foreign fighters who offer tactical training, battlefield support, and operational consulting to extremist groups, sometimes for money, often for ideology.” Russell says that trained fighters and consultants are showing…

The Nigerian Air Force (NAF) is working to improve the serviceability rate of its fleet to 90% by the fourth quarter of the year. The serviceability push is part of a broader emphasis on self-reliance and building a robust maintenance culture in the Air Force. The current serviceability rate is 73%, and 90% is considered a high standard. “Mission success in contemporary air operations is directly tied to the availability, airworthiness, and sustained performance of aircraft platforms,” Chief of the Air Staff, Air Marshal Hasan Bala Abubakar, said during the opening remarks at the 2025 Aircraft Engineering Conference in Abuja. Abubakar…

Russian authorities recently demanded that the Central African Republic (CAR) end its yearslong relationship with the Wagner Group and replace those mercenaries with the state-run Africa Corps, a deal that includes building a Russian military base in the country. The demand is the latest demonstration of Russia’s ongoing campaign to exert political and military influence across multiple African countries while also extracting valuable minerals, oil and other resources for its own benefit — all while declaring that Russia is different from the European countries that colonized Africa. “Russia’s anti-colonial crusade belies its efforts to advance its own political and economic…

Across the continent several insurgencies and conflicts have dragged on for years, some for decades. But there is another battle happening at home, where families of Soldiers who were killed are struggling and need support. Violent conflicts throughout Africa have led to a significant increase in the number of military widows and orphans. In northeast Nigeria, Boko Haram terrorists have killed more than 36,000 people and displaced 2.2 million others since they began their insurgency in 2009. Fisayo Ajala and Lindy Heinecken, social anthropology researchers with Stellenbosch University in South Africa, spoke with military widows in Nigeria and reported their…

The Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) terror group stormed a Malian military base in Boulkessi at dawn June 1 and opened fire. Hours later, online videos showed celebrating JNIM fighters stepping over the bodies of dead soldiers. The terrorists claimed they had killed more than 100 troops and captured 20. According to The Arab Weekly, the massacre was one of more than a dozen deadly attacks by JNIM on military outposts and towns across Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger in May and June. The group claimed it had killed more than 400 soldiers in those assaults. “The offensive has produced…

China has an extensive record of attempting to gain power and influence in Africa. Its media strategies seek to position it positively in the minds of nations and their people. It trains African military and police forces in the image of its own party-oriented model. Its professional military education centers instill its philosophy that “the party controls the gun.” As these efforts continue, China is working to deepen its influence through the soft, subtle power of think tanks, in which ideas can join with political, security and economic policies in “shaping the global discourse” in China’s favor and “enhancing its…