ADF

ADF STAFF The joint African Maritime Forces Summit and Naval Infantry Leaders Symposium-Africa brought naval and coast guard leaders from 30 African countries and nearly a dozen partner nations for a week of high-level discussions. Attendees focused on sharing best practices and insight on how to safeguard coastal waters, littoral zones and inland waterways from a range of criminal activity. In one of the largest gatherings of its type, the conference room in Accra, Ghana was awash in crisp white uniforms worn by admirals and generals from across the continent. The three days of events included presentations by security experts…

ADF STAFF The Djiboutian Coast Guard, the Spanish Navy and the United States Navy in April participated in a biannual personnel recovery exercise at Camp Lemonnier. Operation Bull Shark was designed by the two forces to test communications, interoperability, and personnel recovery during maritime emergencies. The exercise was timely as the Djiboutian Coast Guard has in recent months intensified patrols due to the ongoing attacks by Yemen’s Houthi rebels on ships in the Red Sea. Djibouti’s economy has grown over the past decade and authorities view the Red Sea crisis as a threat. The country is separated from Yemen only…

ADF STAFF Chinese trawlers frequently fish illegally throughout the southwest Indian Ocean and their captains and crews routinely abuse foreign workers on board. New details about what goes on aboard the trawlers were revealed in a report by the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), which has for years documented illegal actions by China’s distant-water fishing fleet, by far the world’s largest. The foundation interviewed 44 crew members from Indonesia and the Philippines who worked on 27 Chinese tuna ships in the southwest Indian Ocean between July 2017 to August 2023. In early 2024, it interviewed another 16 Mozambican fishermen who worked…

ADF STAFF A new postgraduate course in South Africa is designed to give security professionals the counterterror expertise necessary to respond to some of the continent’s most urgent threats. The Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies (ISS) partnered with North-West University (NWU), South Africa’s second largest university, to create the curriculum for the one-year diploma course in geopolitics with an emphasis on counterterrorism and transnational organized crime. The course is expected to be offered in 2025 and, as a fully online course, will be open to security professionals across the African continent. Professor Barend Prinsloo, NWU program leader in international and…

ADF STAFF Officials in the Borno state of Nigeria began recording “droves” of defectors from two competing extremist groups in late 2021. The defectors were from Boko Haram and the Islamic State West Africa Province, also known as ISWAP. “Various stakeholders in Borno State agreed to accept and forgive the initial 3,900 repentant Boko Haram fighters who have surrendered to troops,” the Nigerian newspaper Blueprint reported. A retired brigadier general, Abdullah Sabi Ishaq, said the defections were the result of the use of the “Borno Model,” which begins with “the use of dialogue” to persuade Boko Haram and ISWAP fighters…

ADF STAFF The W National Park is an 8,000-square-kilometer nature preserve that straddles the borders of Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger. It is home to an abundance of wildlife, including aardvark, baboon, endangered cheetah, African bush elephant, hippopotamus, African leopard, West African lion and warthog. Its most dangerous denizens, however, are the violent extremists who have established bases in the park since 2020 after previously using it for smuggling routes. “The park has become a sort of headquarters for the jihadist groups,” Crisis Group analyst Ibrahim Yahaya Ibrahim said in an April 17 video. “We can see that the park…

ADF STAFF Located in an upscale neighborhood of Lusaka, Zambia, Golden Top Support Services presented itself as a normal call center. In fact, it was a Chinese-owned cybercrime operation using WhatsApp, Telegram and other communication platforms to scam people out of their money. Zambian authorities arrested more than 90 people in the scam — 77 when they raided the Golden Top’s offices early in April and another 17 on April 23. Among those arrested in the two incidents were 35 Chinese nationals along with 70 Zambian employees in their early 20s. Some of the Zambians were later released on bond.…

ADF STAFF The director-general of Nigeria’s National Institute for Legislative and Democratic Studies has called for amendments to legislation to increase women’s participation in defense and security. The director-general, Abubakar Sulaiman, said at a news conference in early April that the abilities of women were going untapped in the fight against problems such as terrorism, banditry, kidnapping and civil disturbances, Nigeria’s Premium Times reported. He said his institute is working with the United Nations to persuade the National Assembly and relevant security agencies about the need to get women more involved. “While these security sector institutions strive to achieve their…

ADF STAFF Soldiers killed an Allied Democratic Forces commander known as “Dr. Musa” April 8 during a joint operation by the Uganda Peoples’ Defence Forces (UPDF) and the Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (FARDC). Maj. Bilal Katamba, the UPDF’s mountain division public information officer, said Musa managed all of the rebel group’s medical logistics and worked closely with top Allied Democratic Forces commander Muhammad Luminsa. A Rwanda native, Musa was killed in the DRC’s northern North Kivu province near the Ituri province border. The joint forces also confiscated a submachine gun and military radio. “His death…

ADF STAFF Purple-hued sunsets and the mists of the mighty Mosi-oa-Tunya greeted commanders from across the continent as they gathered in Livingstone, Zambia, for the 12th African Land Forces Summit from April 22-26. The theme, “Regional Solutions to Transnational Problems,” belied the serene setting of the Zambezi River as it crawled toward its destiny at Mosi-oa-Tunya, known to many as Victoria Falls, one of Earth’s seven natural wonders. In addition to the natural backdrop, the summit also commenced against the backdrop of regional challenges such as continuing violent extremism in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province, chaos in the Sahel, and armed…