ADF

Intensifying attacks by Islamic State-linked terrorists in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province have forced tens of thousands of civilians to flee their homes in recent weeks. They also have contributed to a longer deployment for Rwandan troops. Mozambique’s National Defense Minister Cristóvão Artur Chume and his Rwandan counterpart, Juvenal Marizamunda, signed a Status of Force Agreement in Kigali on August 27 to keep the Rwandan Defence Force (RDF) engaged in the fight against the affiliate group known as Islamic State-Mozambique (ISM). “Our common threat in the region remains terrorism,” Cristóvão said during a prior August meeting between the parties to strengthen…

More than seven months after a toxic waste spill at a Chinese-owned mine caused one of the worst environmental disasters in its history, Zambia still is trying to determine the full extent of the damage and the response needed. Attempts to downplay the catastrophe by Sino-Metals Leach copper mine, which is owned by the state-run China Nonferrous Metals Industry Group, have sparked outrage and, more recently, a forceful government response. Fifty million liters of toxic mining waste poured into the Mwambashi River, just outside of the mining town of Chambishi on February 18 when a substandard earthen wall of Sino-Metal’s…

The arrest in August of 60 Chinese nationals conducting illegal cryptocurrency mining in Angola shut down 25 mining operations and was part of a larger multinational investigation into cybercrime across Africa. Operation Serengeti 2.0 ran from June through August under the jurisdiction of the African Joint Operation against Cybercrime (AJOC). Working with Interpol, police in 18 African countries arrested 1,209 alleged cybercriminals, shut down more than 11,000 scam operations and recovered more than $97 million in stolen funds. The project targeted what investigators described as “high-harm and high-impact cybercrimes” that included ransomware, online scams and business email compromise operations. All…

Another armed group has emerged to further destabilize the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Led by convicted war criminal Thomas Lubanga, the Convention for the Popular Revolution (CPR) reportedly engaged the Congolese military (FARDC) in heavy fighting in August at two locations about 30 kilometers north of Ituri province’s capital, Bunia. Dieudonne Losa, a civil society activist in Bunia, said 19 civilians died, including 13 elderly women and four young girls. “What is happening north of Bunia is an unacceptable situation,” Losa told Reuters. FARDC said the CPR had attempted multiple attacks and that Soldiers killed…

For years, female members of the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) had to wear body armor designed for men. This put them at a disadvantage, sometimes during combat, as the gear did not offer full protection. The GAF on August 20 received $1 million worth of women’s body armor from the United States government. Ghanaian Chief of Army Staff Maj. Gen. Lawrence Gbetanu expressed gratitude for the donation, as the roles and responsibilities of Ghana’s female Soldiers are expanding. “Our women have had to make do with protective gear that did not conform to their physiology,” Gbetanu said in a Modern…

Ghana has adopted a new fisheries act aimed at stemming illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Among other new regulations, the Ghanaian government expanded the country’s inshore exclusion zone (IEZ) from 6 to 12 nautical miles from shore. Industrial and large-scale vessels are prohibited from fishing in a country’s IEZ, but trawlers from China and other foreign fishing trawlers routinely invade waters meant for Ghana’s artisanal fishermen. “When the trawlers come close to the area marked solely for our men, they tend to catch a lot of the fish meant for artisanal fishers, and we end up making huge losses,” Regina Solomon,…

When the infamous Russian mercenary Wagner Group announced its departure from Mali earlier this year, it claimed on social media that its “mission was accomplished.” The reality is that in the 3 1/2 years of the counterterrorism and counterinsurgency operations it carried out, the group has had a disastrous impact on the Sahel country that continues to be regarded as the worldwide epicenter of terrorism. “Despite the Wagner Group possessing a reputation for being battle-ready and claiming occasional public triumphs in Mali, its strategy has been plagued by a series of failures,” investigative organization The Sentry wrote in an August…

Faced with a rapidly evolving security threat environment, Morocco is reshaping its intelligence strategy with an eye toward the future. A new report by the R.O.C.K. Institute for Geopolitical and Security Studies examines the rising threat from artificial intelligence and terrorist groups. It recommends a multipronged approach to addressing those threats while also protecting human rights within the kingdom. Morocco’s intelligence agencies face multidimensional threats, according to the report’s author, Kamal Akridiss, who founded the R.O.C.K. Institute in 2024. R.O.C.K. is an English-language acronym for Research, Observation & Critical Knowledge. Those multidimensional threats combine physical, digital, informational and financial dimensions,…

After South African troops withdrew from peacekeeping missions in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), they left behind five Oryx transport helicopters. The helicopters are still there with no deadline for returning them to South Africa. In August, South African National Defence Force (SANDF) authorities disputed reports that the helicopters had been abandoned in the DRC after troops pulled out of the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the DRC (MONUSCO) and the Southern African Development Community’s mission in eastern DRC (SAMIDRC). Four of the helicopters are grounded in Lubumbashi in southern DRC, while the fifth remains at the…

Fury over fishing in The Gambia has reached a fever pitch. Now locals are feuding with foreign industrial trawlers in the country’s waters. The Gambia’s government requires foreign vessels operating offshore to carry a percentage of local crew members, some of whom have been injured when Gambian fishermen attacked foreign trawlers fishing close to shore. Under Gambian law, foreign vessels must fish at least 9 nautical miles out to sea. Kawsu Leigh was one of two Gambian crew members severely burned when angry locals attacked an Egypt-flagged trawler they worked on with burning stones last year. While one local fisherman…