ADF

ADF STAFF Terrorists have left northern Benin and established a new base in northern Nigeria’s Kainji Lake National Park, a 5,300-square-kilometer former tourist attraction. The park, home to one of West Africa’s fast-declining lion populations, is currently closed and the security situation there is “getting out of hand,” Kars de Bruijne, a senior research fellow at the Clingendael Institute, told The Associated Press. It is “a much more explosive situation than we had anticipated,” added de Bruijne, who co-authored a new report on the situation. Violent extremist organizations have operated in the park since at least 2021, but there have been increased…

ADF STAFF Field Marshal Khalifa Haftar, the military leader in eastern Libya, is consolidating power within his family by appointing his sons to key positions in his so-called Libyan Arab Armed Forces (LAAF). His youngest son, 33-year-old Saddam Haftar, has been elevated to the post of chief of staff of the land forces and is his father’s likeliest successor. Another son, Khaled, has been appointed to lead the security units of the LAAF. A third son, Belgacem, oversees the Haftar-controlled Libyan Development and Reconstruction Fund created by the House of Representatives that governs the eastern half of the divided nation.…

ADF STAFF A deadly attack by M23 rebels in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo that killed two South African Soldiers is raising questions about whether the Southern African Development Community peacekeeping force (SAMIDRC) should continue. Ten members of the peacekeeping mission have died since the group entered the eastern DRC in February to replace troops from the East African Community. Six of the dead were South African National Defence Force (SANDF) troops. More than 30 South African Soldiers have been injured in the fighting, some critically. M23 captured two SANDF vehicles in June. South Africa has committed 2,900…

ADF STAFF Among a handful of prisoners of war captured in Ukraine after fighting for Russia, a young Somali man stood out. He said he joined the army to give his family a “good future,” and was told he would be a “helper” doing logistics and first aid. He did not expect to be sent to the front lines. “I didn’t know that I would be in the first line,” the unidentified man said during a news conference in Kyiv on March 15. “I was just dropped there without … knowing the language.” Another man from Sierra Leone wiped tears…

ADF STAFF Since January, Iranian cargo planes have been seen regularly at the airport in Port Sudan, the headquarters for Sudan’s ruling junta led by Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan. Soon after those planes began arriving, the SAF launched attacks against the rival Rapid Support Forces (RSF) using Iranian-made Mohajer-6 drones. In the meantime, the United Arab Emirates and Russia, via the mercenary organization Africa Corps, have supplied the RSF with weapons, fuel and other resources including quadcopter-style drones outfitted to carry and drop 120 mm mortar shells. The SAF has also used this technique. Drones have…

ADF STAFF The rapid expansion of digital technology in recent years has left millions of Africans vulnerable to cybercriminals seeking to scam them, their companies, and even their governments out of money and personal information. The problem is so pervasive that, according to some estimates, such crimes can cost African countries up to 10% of their gross domestic product each year. “Cyber threats are more sophisticated and complex than ever and evolving quickly with new technology like AI [artificial intelligence] becoming increasingly advanced every day,” Stu Sjouwerman, CEO of South African cybersecurity company KnowBe4, wrote recently for the online publication…

ADF STAFF Cybercriminals targeted a shipping company or maritime entity once every three days in late 2023. That figure is rising and requires extra vigilance by African security professionals, experts say.  Among those sounding the alarm are the leaders of the Regional Maritime Information Fusion Center in Antananarivo, Madagascar, which relays alerts of maritime threats around the East and Southern Africa and Indian Ocean (ESA-IO) region.  “Cybercrime is an emerging threat to maritime security that is beginning to gain the upper hand, and in the ESA-IO region it is creeping up on us,” said Lt. Saïd Lavani, Comoran international liaison…

ADF STAFF The Kenyan government has announced major investments in weapons and equipment to modernize its military. The country will spend about 7 billion Kenyan shillings ($45 million) annually for five years to acquire tactical vehicles, drones and other modern defense tools, according to the interior ministry. Part of the investment will include buying drones to monitor border and coastal areas that have been plagued by bandits and terrorists. The first batch of equipment was to include mine-resistant ambush-protected vehicles, aerial surveillance kits, and personal protective gear.  Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki said a major goal of the investment is…

ADF STAFF During its more than two-year intervention in Mozambique, Rwandan and allied forces liberated 90% of the troubled Cabo Delgado region from the grip of extremists.  Ralph Shield, a conflict researcher with the U.S Naval War College, studied the actions of the 2,500 Rwandan Soldiers and police officers and found that they pursued militants while still exercising discretion in the use of force to avoid civilian harm. In fact, he found, Rwanda was deployed to Mozambique for an entire year before inflicting its first recorded civilian fatality. Shield pointed to three factors he believes helped Rwanda fight the insurgency…

ADF STAFF A string of drug seizures by the Senegalese Navy demonstrates the uptick in trafficking in West Africa and the determination of security forces to shut down the routes. In late December 2023, the Senegalese Navy seized 690 kilograms of cocaine being transported to Europe in an ultra-fast boat and arrested five Spanish nationals on board. This took place after two seizures, each of about 3 metric tons, in busts on November 28 and December 16, 2023. “In recent years drug seizures on the high seas have become more frequent,” wrote the Senegalese newspaper Le Quotidien. “This latest operation,…