ADF

ADF STAFF A member of the Libyan Armed Forces looked across the vast desert in Ben Ghilouf, Tunisia, and watched a military helicopter obliterate a ground target. As smoke billowed, he confirmed the target’s destruction over a large radio and watched the helicopter fly away. The LAF member was one of 8,000 participants from 27 countries who participated during the 20th annual African Lion military exercise hosted in Ghana, Morocco, Senegal and Tunisia between April 20 and May 31. The aim of exercise African Lion is to bolster defense capabilities and foster interoperability among participating nations. In Dodji, Senegal, exercises…

ADF STAFF When reports surfaced in late April that the Burkinabe Army massacred hundreds of civilians, its military-led government sprang into action. It suspended a host of media outlets, blocked websites, and shut down radio and television broadcasts, while warning international media networks not to report on the story. Burkina Faso’s chilling treatment of journalists is part of a wider trend in the Sahel, as military juntas have suspended or forced the closure of more than a dozen media outlets over the past three years. Observers say the region is becoming an “information desert.” “Restrictions on media freedom and civic…

ADF STAFF In early 2023, Ugandan officials arrested a 24-year-old man from the Democratic Republic of the Congo who had entered the country illegally with forged documents. In his luggage they found $500,000 in counterfeit money. Two years earlier, Ugandan authorities stopped a group of 10 people traveling from the DRC with $2.4 million in fake bills, apparently ready to distribute across Uganda and neighboring countries. Recent studies show that the DRC has become a major hub for making and distributing counterfeit currency in Africa. In some cases, the fake money is made in the DRC. In other cases, people…

ADF STAFF One of the many points of pride in the Ghana Armed Forces (GAF) is its embrace of gender equality and policies to integrate women into the military. Lt. Cdr. Priscilla Ami Dogbeda Dzokoto, the first female commanding officer of a Ghana Navy ship, embodies the GAF’s success. “We have had females be generals. We have had females be appointed as commanding officers of several units in the armed forces now,” she said in a United Nations video posted on March 31. “There’s more room for more women to be appointed in higher positions in the armed forces.” The…

ADF STAFF Two Gulf countries are playing an outsized role in Sudan’s civil war as they compete for diplomatic and military influence. Rivals Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have been accused of making Sudan’s conflict more intractable by taking opposing sides. Despite its denials, the UAE reportedly is giving military support to the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) headed by Mohammed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo. Saudi Arabia is closely aligned with Egypt, which supports the Sudanese Armed Forces, and has tried to cast itself in the role of mediator. The Gulf states had been allies for decades, but the…

ADF STAFF Sub-Saharan Africa plays a major role in the global illicit trade in wildlife materials, particularly in the flow of materials into Asia, according to a new analysis by the United Nations. Pangolins, whose scales are a popular component of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), make up a third of the wildlife materials trafficked to Asia. Pangolin scales, together with elephant tusks and rhinoceros horns, comprise 95% of the animal material seized while being trafficked out of Africa and 72% of animal materials trafficked worldwide, according to the World Wildlife Crime Report 2024. The report was developed in collaboration with…

ADF STAFF The Islamic State group is operating in new places and using new tactics in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province after losing key leaders and being driven from former bases. The IS has increased the use of improvised explosive devices while dispersing into smaller camps in dense forests and conducting cross-province operations. The terror group also has used child soldiers in recent attacks. “The adoption of the new ‘modus operandi’ by terrorists demonstrates that there is new leadership within the group,” Mozambique’s Interior Minister Pascoal Ronda said in a report by Lusa News Agency. “The majority of the terrorist leaders…

ADF STAFF Mozambican Defense and Security Forces have developed a strong relationship with residents of the Quissanga district in the embattled Cabo Delgado province since they deployed before municipal elections last year. The security forces, also known as the FDS, and residents have built enough trust to exchange information about terrorists who have established small bases in a region bordering Mucojo, in the district of Macomia. The terrorists also frequently circulate in other parts of Quissanga, according to local reports. “These soldiers we have now have no problem with the population, they even say that if they hear any strange…

ADF STAFF More than 20 chiefs of air staff from across the continent came together in Nigeria to discuss innovating and integrating technology to enhance regional security. Air Marshal Hasan Bala Abubakar marked the 60th anniversary of the Nigerian Air Force (NAF) as he opened the third edition of the African Air Forces Forum from May 23 to May 24 at the Abuja International Conference Centre. “As we celebrate 60 years of steadfast service and commitment to national and regional security, we look forward to engaging in fruitful collaborations and discussions that will propel our collective security and technological advancement…

ADF STAFF Souleymane Faye, a retired Senegalese fisherman, watched with dismay as a group of sea-weary artisanal fishermen hauled their colorful canoes ashore in Bargny, about 15 kilometers east of Dakar. “Look, they’ve just arrived,” Faye told Reuters in March. Looking inside boxes used to carry their catch, he said, “There’s nothing.” Locals have long blamed foreign industrial trawlers, mostly Chinese, for decimating the nation’s fish stocks through illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing practices. According to the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), Senegal loses more than $270 million in revenue each year to illegal fishing. “The abundance that once existed…