ADF

The Alliance of Sahel States’ new Unified Force (AES Unified Force) seeks to strengthen counterterrorism efforts in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger — an embattled region where past coordinated efforts have failed. Launched in December 2025 by the three countries’ ruling military juntas, the Unified Force faces profound challenges posed by the al-Qaida-affiliated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), Islamic State Sahel province (ISSP), among other terror groups and armed militias. The force increased from 5,000 to 6,000 troops in February, amid rising violence against civilians in the three countries. “We are aware that the [terrorists] benefit from material, financial, weapons and…

Since Sudan’s civil war erupted in April 2023, the production of synthetic drugs such as Captagon, a highly addictive, amphetamine-like stimulant, has drastically increased. Once considered a transit corridor for illicit drugs, Sudan’s emergence as a manufacturer of Captagon coincided with the 2024 fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime in Syria, where about 80% of the world’s supply of the drug was once produced. A report by the New Lines Institute for Strategy and Policy shows that Sudanese Captagon manufacturers have increased their production capacity. In June 2023, Sudan’s General Administration for Drug Control seized a manufacturing site in the Blue…

With his hands in bandages and his voice shaking, the Kenyan man wore a mask to hide his identity because he lives in fear of retribution from Russian authorities. Speaking publicly for the first time, he described the “living hell” he experienced after being lured to Russia under false pretenses and forced to fight in the war against Ukraine. “I thought I was signing a basketball contract,” he told the BBC in a February podcast. “I was tricked, and I don’t want any Kenyans or Africans to be tricked in the same way I was.” Shot in both hands and…

A shadowy industry is thriving alongside Africa’s digital boom: mass-surveillance systems powered by artificial intelligence. As Chinese-built surveillance technology is proliferating across the continent, experts are warning that it is a dangerous threat to citizens’ rights. “You have highly sophisticated, high-definition, internet-based cameras that are filming 24-7, you can enable it with facial recognition,” independent researcher and journalist Heidi Swart told ADF. “If you combine that with a population register database, it allows you to actually track people as they go about their business. If you store up the data collected by all these cameras, it can give you an…

About a dozen Malian soldiers and Russian mercenaries died in a recent ambush by terrorists near the city of Nampala near Mali’s border with Mauritania. Al-Qaida-aligned Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) took credit for the attack near the community of Louguel in early March that killed at least 11 people, including three mercenaries with Russia’s Africa Corps. The ambush followed the deaths of seven Malian civilians killed by the Malian Armed Forces and Africa Corps a few days earlier. According to reports, soldiers and mercenaries encountered a group of unarmed Malian civilians on March 6 driving from Fassala, Mauritania, to…

Senegal’s eastern Bakel Department has become the focal point for the government’s effort to prevent terrorist incursions from Mali. Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) is trying to exploit a variety of issues confronting the region on both sides of the Falémé River to expand its reach. The problems include porous borders, crime and damage caused by gold mining. So far, however, JNIM’s cross-border activity has been sporadic. In September 2025, JNIM fighters kidnapped six Senegalese truck drivers for 24 hours. The kidnapping was part of the group’s attempt to strangle economic activity in Bamako, which relies on trucks traveling from…

Niger’s western Tillabéri region has emerged as the deadliest area in the central Sahel for civilians due to an uptick in attacks by terror groups such as the Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP) and Jama’at Nusrat al‑Islam wal‑Muslimin (JNIM), According to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED), more than 1,200 of the 1,939 deaths recorded in Niger last year were in Tillabéri. The ISSP accounted for the largest number of fatalities from attacks on civilians, followed by operations by the Nigerien military and JNIM, which is affiliated with al-Qaida. “Violence in Tillabéri was geographically widespread across many of…

In a first, the African Land Forces Summit was held in Europe and included representatives from the defense industry. The annual summit, sponsored by U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa (SETAF-AF), took place March 23 and 24 in Rome and drew more than 300 participants from 47 countries. It was the 13th iteration of the event and the first to take place outside of Africa since 2022. Col. William Daniel, SETAF-AF’s director of security cooperation, said the goal of the event was to match ideas with “proven, scalable solutions” to Africa’s security challenges. Of the industry leaders there displaying…

Chadian President Mahamat Déby has ordered his military to retaliate against attacks originating in Sudan after a drone killed 17 people during a funeral in Al-Tina, a border town. Déby denounced the mid-March attack, calling it “outrageous and a blatant aggression” that violated Chad’s territorial integrity. It was not clear whether the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) or paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) launched the attack. The two sides have been embroiled in a civil war since April 2023, and Chad increasingly has been caught in the fray. Two Chadian troops were killed in a late December 2025 strike on an…

A new report documents the huge scale of illegal activity by Chinese “floating fish factories” that set up off the coast of Guinea-Bissau and harvest marine resources by the ton. The Hua Xin 17, listed as a 125-meter Chinese cargo ship in maritime databases, was anchored for 157 days in 2025 about 50 kilometers off the coast of Orango Island, part of Guinea-Bissau’s protected Bijagós archipelago. The Tian Yi He 6, also listed as a cargo vessel, spent 244 days about 60 kilometers from the island last year. An investigation by The Guardian and DeSmog, an investigative journalism organization, showed…