ADF

Craig Sholto-Douglas was looking for a white rhino and her calf. The two animals, members of a near-threatened species prized by traditional Chinese medicine for its horns, made inviting targets, as the mother’s smart band had come off her leg. Sholto-Douglas’ primary focus as environmental manager at Kwandwe Game Reserve in South Africa’s Eastern Cape province is protecting black rhinos and white rhinos. Poaching is the biggest threat. “It’s actually at its worst, partially because it’s a different type of poacher that we’re dealing with,” he said in a 2024 video. “They’re coming prepared to kill not just one or…

A Malian drone shot down over the border in Algeria has escalated tensions between the two countries as they take different approaches toward Tuareg groups living along their shared border. Algerian forces shot down the Turkish Akinci drone in early April after it crossed into Algerian airspace near the border community of Tin Zaouatine, a remote town deep in the Sahara that is a base for Tuareg rebels fighting Mali’s ruling junta. Malian officials claim the drone crashed 10 kilometers inside their border. Tin Zaouatine was where Tuaregs in July 2024 killed 47 Malian soldiers and 84 Russian mercenaries belonging…

A Fulani herder named Musa was asleep at his home in northeast Nigeria in early April when he and his family heard gunfire and fled into the bush. When it was safe to return, Musa found that terrorists had stolen the source of his livelihood: 36 cattle and 40 sheep. Musa’s plight, as reported by Agence France-Presse (AFP), is not unique among herders in the Lake Chad Basin, across West Africa and in the Sahel, where livestock is coveted and thieves sell stolen animals at local markets. “Cattle rustling is a major source of funding for armed groups,” an expert…

When residents of Uis in western Namibia started noticing daily convoys of large trucks leaving what they thought was a small-scale artisanal mining site in January 2023, a group of community activists sprang into action. They helped uncover an illegal Chinese lithium mining scheme involved in allegations of fraud, corruption, environmental crimes and labor abuses. Within months they had organized protests that have continued ever since. Namibia’s Ministry of Mines and Energy launched a criminal investigation in December 2024 after a surprise inspection by mining commissioner Isabella Chirchir found that Xinfeng Investments had mixed thousands of metric tons of unprocessed…

Somali security forces in 2022 reclaimed the town of Adan Yabaal, a logistical hub for the government forces, from the al-Shabaab terror group. However, on April 16, 2025, al-Shabaab reclaimed the town, which is about 220 kilometers north of Mogadishu, the national capital. The predawn raid forced government forces to retreat from the town, which connects Hirshabelle State to neighboring Galmudug State. “After early morning prayers, we heard a deafening explosion, then gunfire,” Fatuma Nur, a mother of four, told Reuters. “Al-Shabab attacked us from two directions.” The loss of Adan Yabaal underscores the Somali government’s difficulty in stabilizing communities…

As March ended, Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) leader Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan stood outside the Republican Palace and raised his fist, a demonstration that the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) had been driven from Khartoum. As Sudan’s war enters its third year, analysts say the return of al-Burhan to the nation’s capital marked a turning point in the war between Sudan’s de fact leader and RSF chief Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo that began on April 15, 2023. Al-Burhan’s government has operated out of Port Sudan for most of the conflict. “The recapture of Khartoum city thus marks a watershed moment…

The United States Navy sailed the centerpiece of its 6th Fleet into two Libyan ports recently, the latest in a series of engagements to show U.S. support for Libyan security integration, sovereignty and cooperation. The USS Mount Whitney brought fleet commander Vice Adm. Jeffrey T. Anderson; Ambassador Richard Norland, U.S. special envoy for Libya; and Jeremy Berndt, chargé d’affaires ad interim of the U.S. Embassy to Libya; to Tripoli and Benghazi on April 20 and 21. The Mount Whitney is a Blue Ridge-class command and control vessel and the flagship of the 6th Fleet, which is based at Naval Support…

Amboma Safari and his family spent the night under their bed on April 11 as gunfire and bomb blasts echoed through the streets of Goma, the besieged capital of the North Kivu province. “We saw corpses of soldiers, but we don’t know which group they are from,” he told The Associated Press. As fighting continues to rage in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo between government forces, allied local militias and the Rwanda-backed M23 rebels, frustration with the disjointed Luanda Agreement peace process has gradually turned into pessimism. After leading the peace process for nearly three years, Angolan President João…

Russia has used its so-called “ghost fleet” of aging commercial vessels to evade sanctions on oil exports, but experts say the ships have another purpose: to traffic arms to Russian allies in eastern Libya. A recent report by Interpol documents shipments of weapons and equipment from Russian ports on the Black Sea to Tobruk in eastern Libya to supply Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar’s Libyan National Army. Mercenaries from Russia’s Africa Corps, formerly the Wagner Group, have taken over a Libyan military base in the east. From there, they have also shipped weapons to the Rapid Support Forces fighting government troops…

For the second year in a row, Burkina Faso is the nation most affected by terrorism in the world, according to the latest edition of the Global Terrorism Index. Australia’s Institute for Economics and Peace compiles its yearly list based on terrorism incidents, fatalities, injuries and hostages. Six of the list’s 10 countries most affected by terrorism are in Africa. In addition to Burkina Faso, the other African countries in the top 10 include its Sahelian neighbors, Mali (No. 4) and Niger (No. 5), along with Nigeria (No. 6), Somalia (No. 7) and Cameroon (No. 10). “The Sahel region remains…