ADF

ADF STAFF As the battle for control of Sudan’s Darfur region rages on, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have increasingly focused attacks on a single ethnic group: the non-Arab Masalits. This group makes up a significant part of the region’s population and is fighting alongside other groups to keep the region out of RSF hands in the country’s civil war. North Darfur and its capital, el-Fasher, are the only part of the larger Darfur region outside the RSF’s control. Conquering el-Fasher will give the RSF a path to attack Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) positions in northern Sudan and to resupply…

ADF STAFF Since deploying in 2021, the Southern African Development Community (SADC) Mission in Mozambique (SAMIM) has helped reduce the presence of Islamic State-affiliated terrorists in the Cabo Delgado province from several thousand to a few hundred. However, the upcoming end of SAMIM on July 15 has some observers concerned about a revival of terrorism in the region. In recent months, the chronically underfunded 16-nation SAMIM contingent has begun to shrink. Botswana and Lesotho withdrew their forces in April. Angola and Namibia are preparing to leave. Terrorists with the group known as Islamic State Mozambique are seizing the opportunity to…

ADF STAFF Millions of metric tons of illegally harvested timber smuggled from Mozambique to China are helping to fund one of Africa’s deadliest insurgencies, according to a newly published report. China’s illicit trade in rosewood, estimated to be worth hundreds of millions of dollars a year, is linked to the financing of Mozambique’s Islamic State-linked militants, according to the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), an organization that fights environmental crime. “In brazen violation of [Mozambique’s] log export ban, Chinese timber dealers buy logs for a few dollars and sell them in China, where they can be turned into luxury furniture selling…

ADF STAFF Policing maritime crime in Africa’s coastal waters requires more than simply intercepting suspect ships or arresting possible drug traffickers. It also requires careful attention to collecting evidence that can be used later to prosecute those criminals — skills that sailors often lack. Obangame Express 24 sought to fill that skill gap as part of its overall agenda aimed at building collaboration among countries operating within the Yaoundé Code of Conduct. Launched in 2013, the code plays an increasingly important role in maintaining situational awareness and fighting maritime crime in the Gulf of Guinea, one of the world’s hottest…

ADF STAFF South Africa has launched its latest venture exploring the potential for artificial intelligence (AI), this time in the defense sphere. The Defence Artificial Intelligence Research Unit (DAIRU) opened in early May at the South African Military Academy in the Western Cape province. It’s the first center of its kind in Africa, according to Mondli Gungubele, South Africa’s minister of communications and digital technologies. DAIRU is South Africa’s fourth AI research center. Gungubele said the center represents a strategic leveraging of AI on behalf of national security. “For Africa to be competitive in the world, we need to realize…

ADF STAFF Diplomats from Mali and Mauritania have been working hard to avert a border crisis between the neighboring West African countries. In April, Mauritania accused the Malian military (FAMa) and its Russian mercenary partners of chasing armed men across the border into the villages of Madallah and Fassala. “Several of our civilian compatriots were killed by the Malian army and fighters from the Wagner Group in Mauritanian camps on the border. We sent evidence to Bamako,” a Mauritanian security source on the border told Agence France-Presse. Relations between the countries have been mostly friendly for decades, but complex security…

ADF STAFF Tuareg rebels in northern Mali recently announced the formation of a new coalition to fight the junta-led government for control of the territory known as Azawad. The new alliance, known as the Permanent Strategic Framework for the Defense of the People of Azawad (CSP-DPA), is led by Bilal Ag Acherif, a key figure in the 12-year-old rebellion. Originally led by Tuareg fighters, the rebellion has drawn support from groups loyal to al-Qaida, leading to acts of terrorism. Acherif maintains that his group is separate from al-Qaida. In forming the CSP-DPA, rebel leaders denounced terrorism, while calling on supporters…

ADF STAFF The Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2023 recorded the largest increase in military spending globally as local and international forces worked to secure the country’s conflict-ridden eastern areas. South Sudan reported the world’s second-highest increase. The DRC’s military spending increased by 105% to $794 million, according to the Trends in World Military Expenditure 2023 report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). The report noted that the DRC’s increased spending also “coincided with growing tensions with Rwanda” and “a government move to strengthen the DRC’s armed forces after it demanded the early withdrawal of a large-scale…

ADF STAFF Joint security forces in northern Mozambique continued their seek-and-destroy operations against Islamic State-Mozambique (ISM) after the terror group launched another foray into the Nampula Province in April. “Insurgents crossed the Lurio river by boat into Nampula and attacked the villages of Nasua and Manica in Erati district on April 25,” the conflict observation website Cabo Ligado reported. “IS claimed to have burned homes, churches and schools and to have killed one civilian in Nasua. “The next day, insurgents clashed with security forces around the village of Mithoca, according to IS. Police in Nampula confirmed that insurgents had attacked…

ADF STAFF Senegalese authorities in mid-April seized more than a metric ton of cocaine concealed in packets and stashed in bags in a truck near the Mali border. Valued at $146 million, it was the country’s largest inland seizure of cocaine. In November 2023, the Senegalese Navy intercepted three tons of cocaine from a ship off the coast. These seizures highlight an ongoing trend of drugs, including cannabis and pharmaceutical opioids, that are increasingly trafficked to West Africa and the Sahel. A new report from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) shows that drug trafficking in these…