ADF

A Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) delegation has met with raepresentatives of the Umbutfo Eswatini Defence Force to discuss military cooperation between the two nations. The two sides met in late 2025 to discuss capacity development through training partnerships, the Kenya Ministry of Defence reported. They also discussed defense policy and planning, personnel welfare, terms and conditions of military service, and joint career progression courses. The two teams addressed the Kenya-Eswatini Defence Cooperation Agreement Draft, which proposes further collaboration in peace support operations, research and development, military health services, border security management, cybersecurity, and other aspects of defense. They described the…

Nigeria and Saudi Arabia hope a landmark memorandum of understanding will deepen defense and military cooperation between the two countries. The agreement, signed December 9, 2025, in Abuja, comes as Nigeria confronts multiple security threats and seeks stronger international support to rebuild its defense capabilities. Nigerian officials called the memorandum “a significant milestone,” noting that it includes cooperation in training, joint exercises, intelligence sharing, technical support, logistics and other mutually agreed upon defense engagements. The agreement will run for five years, with a renewal option. Either party can terminate it with three months’ notice. The agreement includes capacity building and…

A campaign of airstrikes in Somalia forced al-Shabaab to limit group communications and shift away from large gatherings of top leaders. In northwest Nigeria, an airstrike against Lakurawa terrorist camps forced fighters to flee to the north. Local sources told researcher Viktor Marsai that many of the terrorists were shocked at being targeted and had previously felt safe from airstrikes. “Neither example demonstrates a full defeat of terrorist groups, but these cases demonstrate how airstrikes can weaken groups’ coherence and operational capacities — at least for a time,” he wrote for The Soufan Center in an August 4 brief. Air…

East African nations are joining forces against piracy and other sea crimes that threaten maritime resources and shipping routes. Countries adhering to the Djibouti Code of Conduct (DCoC) have signed onto a proposal calling for a regional task force to tackle piracy and other crimes in the Gulf of Aden and Western Indian Ocean. The DCoC was adopted in 2009 to support regional and national capacity to counter attacks on ships transiting the region. The plan was revealed on August 17, the same day that eight armed Somali pirates boarded the Cameroon-flagged MV Lutuf, which had armed guards, about 4 nautical…

Chinese-owned ZamFresh has become one of the largest fishing companies in southern Africa since it arrived in Zambia in 2018. The tilapia it pulls from Lake Kariba near Jeremiah Island is sold in landlocked Zambia and Zimbabwe and exported globally. This is profitable for ZamFresh, but it has meant poverty, hunger and despair for the 500 artisanal fishermen on Jeremiah Island who say they were evicted to make room for the company. ZamFresh owns more than 300 large fish cages around the island, which is on the Zambian side of Lake Kariba, the world’s largest artificial lake and water reservoir…

Paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighters continue to defect and join the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), raising questions as to whether their movements are due to minor infighting or a more significant erosion of faith inside the rebel group. Abubakr Hamouda Dahloub, RSF intelligence chief in North Kordofan State, defected in August with 200 fighters in Omdurman. The men brought their weapons and equipment and said they were ready for combat alongside the SAF and its allied forces, the Sudan News Agency reported. Dahloub said he and his fighters realized “their mistake in following the project being implemented by the…

The sound of gunfire and explosions began about 1 a.m. on August 29, setting off a night of intense fighting at Air Base 101, a military installation at Diori Hamani International Airport in Niger’s capital. The third attack of the year on Niamey, after one in January by an Islamic State group affiliate and another in June by al-Qaida’s Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, was different. This one came from within the Army, and unlike Niger’s conflict with terrorists, it was quelled by Russia’s Africa Corps mercenaries. According to Héni Nsaibia, West Africa senior analyst at the Armed Conflict Location and…

Nigeria’s northern states are experiencing a surge in terrorism spreading from the Sahel as strained diplomatic relations with Niger’s ruling junta complicates cross-border security. Tensions between the two countries began after the 2023 coup that overthrew Niger’s democratically elected president, Mohamed Bazoum. The situation worsened when Niger joined Burkina Faso and Mali in the Alliance of Sahelian States (AES) and withdrew from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) in 2025. It later exited the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), which confronts terrorism in the Lake Chad Basin. After withdrawing from ECOWAS, Niger and its AES allies have repeatedly…

Annual cocaine seizures in West Africa have surged from two metric tons in 2018 to more than 30 metric tons in 2025, according to a report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC). Cocaine trafficking was the fastest-growing criminal market in West Africa between 2019 and 2025. According to The Economist, the volume of cocaine seized in the region each year increased by 50%. At least one-third of the cocaine exported to Europe transits the region. Some analysts believe that about 30% of all cocaine bound for Europe last year passed through West Africa. “Critically, West Africa is…

Two years after canceling a peace agreement with Tuareg separatists, Mali’s ruling junta is no closer to restoring security to the country, according to analysts. Instead, the junta appears to have undermined its own counterterrorism efforts by prompting the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) to align with terrorists. “They [the Malian government] decided the factions in the north were terrorists equal to JNIM [Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin] and would be fought the same way,” Wassim Nasr, senior researcher at The Soufan Center, told ADF. “At the end of the day, this policy led to a real coalition between the [FLA] rebels…