ADF

ADF STAFF Of all the weapons at their disposal, Sudan’s two warring generals have turned in recent months to one that is cheap, familiar and devastating: starvation. “Both the SAF (Sudanese Armed Forces) and the RSF (Rapid Support Forces) are using food as a weapon and starving civilians,” a panel of United Nations experts reported recently. They described the situation in Sudan as unprecedented. About 25.6 million people — half of Sudan’s population — face a food crisis across 14 areas, including Darfur, Khartoum and al-Gezira, the heart of Sudan’s agricultural zone. As many as 2.5 million people could die…

ADF STAFF Violent extremist organizations from northern Benin and Burkina Faso are increasingly targeting northern Togo as conflicts from the Sahel spill into coastal countries. Four people on a tricycle in the north-central town of Bonzougou were killed June 18 after riding over an improvised explosive device (IED). Several terror groups operate in the Savannahs region, although none claimed responsibility for the attack, Togo’s L’Alternative newspaper reported. The attack in Bonzougou is farther south into Togo’s territory than previous attacks. Five days later, hooded terrorists ambushed the northern town of Bamone, slit the throats of three people and took their…

ADF STAFF Ernest Fornah, 32, is among Sierra Leone’s growing number of kush addicts. He smokes the drug four times a day and often can be found sitting with other users on streets and alleyways in Freetown, the capital. “These drugs are killing us,” he told the Financial Times newspaper. The unemployed university graduate and father of one is emblematic of his country’s drug crisis. Kush is cheap and plentiful, but for Fornah the high is alluring and the withdrawal symptoms are painful. According to a Sierra Leone government-backed analysis, kush is a synthetic drug containing nitazenes, synthetic opioids that…

ADF STAFF The African Union Transition Mission in Somalia is prioritizing community policing techniques as it prepares Somali security forces to assume full control of the country when the mission exits in December 2024. The mission, known by its acronym ATMIS, supports “police-public partnerships” as a way of building resilience against radicalization and violent extremism through community policing. The policy validates a realization that community policing is an effective tool against extremism. “I want you to use these skills as a yardstick when you go out to fight al-Shabaab militants and other criminals because community policing is all about inclusivity,…

ADF STAFF Thick white smoke billowed over the rooftops and power lines at a military base housing Djiboutian troops attached to the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS). Al-Shabaab claimed responsibility for the June 30 suicide bombing that killed at least four people — including a father, mother and their 7-year-old daughter —  in the central Somali town of Beledweyne. “We went to the place where the problem happened; it was really unimaginable that we collected the cut meat of our relatives,” Feylow Abdi Adan, the girl’s uncle, told the BBC. Djiboutian forces were handing the base over to Somali…

ADF STAFF Chinese lending to African countries slowed significantly in the years immediately before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. But although many countries still struggle under the weight of enormous debt, China appears poised to launch new projects in Africa with a focus on mineral extraction. Developing countries owe China an estimated $1.1 trillion, and more than 80% of China’s loans are to countries experiencing financial distress, according to AidData, a research lab at William & Mary. Despite this, China rarely agrees to loan forgiveness or principle reduction, preferring to negotiate longer repayment plans on a case-by-case basis. “For the…

ADF STAFF As Sudan’s civil war drags on, experts are pointing to the role played by outside interests in prolonging it and making it deadlier. “There’s a lot of resources and money that is being invested in this war, particularly on the RSF side,” Hala al-Karib, regional director for the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa, told Voice of America. Since April 15, 2023, the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has fought the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) in a battle for supremacy over Sudan that has killed an estimated 16,000 people and forced nearly 9 million to flee…

ADF STAFF The Islamic State group (IS) claims that it committed 788 attacks globally in the first half of 2024. Of those attacks, 536 were in Africa, where the terror group killed 2,142 people. More than half of the continent’s total deaths from IS violence — 1,115 — were recorded in West Africa, where the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) are prominent. These statistics highlight the IS group’s continued expansion across Africa, where it has constantly sought to recruit and train new fighters since losing ground in the Middle East.…

ADF STAFF Since it began in April 2023, the war between Sudan’s top generals has been marked by the relentless and largely unresisted advance of Rapid Support Forces (RSF) fighters, bringing ever-larger areas of the country under the paramilitary force’s control. The Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and their allied militias continue to hold territory in Sudan’s north and east, but much of the country’s most valuable real estate — from gold mines in the west to farmland in the east and much of the capital region — now is in the hands of the RSF. RSF victories in places such…

ADF STAFF Sudan’s war has begun to spill into the Central African Republic as both sides of the fight conduct operations along Sudan’s southwest border. According to the United Nations, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) launched air raids on militia positions along the border, and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) have recruited fighters from rebel groups in the CAR. Meanwhile, the CAR, which remains mired it its own 11-year violent conflict, has become a refuge for more than 31,000 Sudanese residents fleeing the fighting in their own country. Many of those Sudanese are sheltering in remote areas of the…