ADF

Facing rising crime, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa authorized a sweeping domestic deployment of military forces to support police operations in five provinces. He called the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) a “force multiplier” in assisting the South African Police Service (SAPS) with Operation Prosper, which seeks to combat gang violence, extortion syndicates and illegal mining in the Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, North West and Western Cape provinces. “We are getting the police and the army to work together to handle the challenges our people are facing,” Ramaphosa told parliament on March 13. “The SANDF deployment is necessary…

Artisanal fishing had sustained Ibrahima Mar’s family for generations. But Mar, a resident of Rufisque, a suburb of Dakar, has seen the country’s fish stocks reduced gradually but drastically over the last 15 years. This is due to foreign industrial trawlers, particularly those from China, that are robbing Senegalese waters of a critical food source while threatening the jobs of more than 1.3 million people who work in the country’s fisheries sector. Mar’s heart aches for the loss of fish, his livelihood and one of his sons, who tried to travel to Europe several years ago in a desperate bid…

The Angolan government has charged two Russian nationals with terrorism, espionage and influence peddling as part of a false information campaign designed to fuel antigovernment protests ahead of upcoming presidential elections. Angola is the latest African country to find itself on the receiving end of a Russian influence operation run by African Politology, a group created by the ex-leader of the organization formerly known as the Wagner Group. Through African Politology, Russian President Vladimir Putin has sought to stir up public unrest, particularly ahead of elections, in the Central African Republic, Chad, Madagascar, Mali, Namibia and South Africa, among other…

Terrorism attacks and deaths fell sharply worldwide in 2025, including in parts of Africa, but the numbers might tell a more complex story about how terrorists are becoming more entrenched in regions such as the Sahel, according to a new report. “In 2025, we saw the largest year-on-year reduction in terrorism,” Thomas Morgan, senior research fellow at the Institute for Economics and Peace, told The Africa Report magazine. Morgan was lead author of the Global Terrorism Index 2026. “Deaths fell 28%, attacks fell 22%, with most of that fall actually occurring in sub-Saharan Africa,” he said. “If you look at…

Sahelian terrorist groups and criminal gangs are leveraging an expanding insurgency corridor in Nigeria’s Kebbi-Kainji-Borgu triangle to expand their influence, recruit new fighters and fund illicit activities. The region straddles the Nigerian states of Kebbi, Sokoto, Niger and part of Kwara in central Nigeria. It also stretches into Niger’s Dosso region and Benin’s Alibori department. Analysts say groups including Boko Haram, the Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP) and the al-Qaida-affiliated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) are leveraging geopolitical changes, lax regional cooperation and weak border security coordination to expand their territories. Violent events involving jihadist groups in Benin’s Alibori and…

The Southern African Development Community (SADC) is planning two regional security exercises to harmonize regional responses to sea crimes and enhance information sharing that supports regional trade and economic stability. This year, the bloc’s Standing Maritime Committee (SMC) wants to relaunch the SADC Maritime Exercise, which was postponed last year due to security challenges. This was announced during an SMC meeting in Namibia in March, when South Africa assumed chairmanship of the committee. Namibia has agreed to host this year’s iteration of the exercise, a multinational effort designed to improve interoperability and readiness among regional navies. South Africa is developing…

Arms imports in West Africa have climbed in the past decade, even as weaponry sales in much of the rest of the continent have been flat or declined, a 2026 study shows. The difference is terrorism. West African nations are buying arms primarily to combat surging terrorist groups such as Boko Haram and Islamic State group affiliates. The Sahel region is under constant attack. Although arms imports by countries across Africa have decreased by 41% over the past decade, West African arms transfers rose sharply, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), which released a report on global…

The African Union, the United Nations and other international partners have helped create increasingly sophisticated regional coordination mechanisms, but those efforts can be hindered when participating countries work from different doctrinal philosophies. “Multilateralism matters because individually we are quite weak, and collectively this is what provides us much stronger avenues for rules that better benefit us and leads us to a more stable and sustainable development pathway,” Gustavo de Carvalho, head researcher at the South African Institute of International Affairs, said during a February 24 webinar about shaping multilateral peace and security reforms. The European Centre for Development Policy Management…

Thousands of kilometers from the front lines in Ukraine, another African country recently discovered that dozens of its citizens have been embroiled in Russia’s brutal, high-casualty war of attrition. At least 18 Zimbabweans have been killed while fighting alongside Russian forces, Information Minister Zhemu Soda said in March, accusing fraudulent employment agencies of promising lucrative jobs in Russia to trick Zimbabweans into joining the war. “Our citizens are being preyed upon by unscrupulous individuals and networks who operate with complete disregard of human life,” he said at a Harare news conference on March 25, adding that “traffickers use sophisticated methods,…

When Zimbabwe announced an immediate ban on the exports of all raw minerals and lithium concentrates in February, international analysts called the move audacious. At home, however, Zimbabweans saw it as a practical matter of protecting the country’s national security. With the largest lithium reserves on the continent, Zimbabwe has taken control not just of its mineral wealth but also of its relationship with China. Experts say it likely signals a trend throughout Africa. “Zimbabwe’s lithium export ban in late February changed how resource-rich countries are approaching the global supply chains,” risk intelligence analyst Esther Sit wrote in a March…