ADF

ADF STAFF Extremists linked to the Islamic State group (IS) in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province are notorious for raiding and torching entire towns, beheading civilians and attacking security forces. However, IS-linked groups are pushing to change their image in an effort to win public support and recruit new fighters, analysts say. Notably, they have increased “da’wah” activities in the provincial districts of Chiure, Macomia, Meluco, Mocímboa da Praia, Nangade and Quissanga, which 300 rebel fighters reportedly captured in March. Da’wah is an Arabic term that roughly means proselytizing. As Caleb Weiss noted in the Foundation for Defense of Democracies’ Long…

ADF STAFF Armed conflict has returned to the northern Ethiopian town of Alamata with the most serious fighting since the end of the Tigray war in 2022. The town and surrounding woreda, or district, are within one of two territories disputed by the Tigray and Amhara regions — contested lands that have been a tinderbox of ethnic discontent for decades. More than 50,000 people, primarily Amhara, have been forced to flee their homes in the Alamata woreda, as Tigrayan and Amhara militants clashed sporadically in February, March and April. “The humanitarian situation is dire, with thousands of women and children…

ADF STAFF More than 100 Burkinabe soldiers on motorbikes, in pickup trucks and at least two armored cars entered the village of Nondin in the country’s northern Yatenga province between 8:30 a.m. and 9 a.m. on February 25. The soldiers systematically ordered people out of their homes and told them to show their identity cards. They are accused of then opening fire on villagers they had rounded up into groups. By the time they left, 44 civilians, including 20 children, were dead, according to a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report. About an hour later, the soldiers entered the nearby village…

ADF STAFF Turkey’s growing presence in Africa is undeniable, and it’s by design. With its eyes on expanding influence, Turkey has significantly increased its engagement on the continent in recent years. Turkish trade is booming, as its exports to Africa have nearly doubled in less than a decade. The number of Turkish embassies on the continent has risen from 12 in 2005 to 44 today. Geopolitical Intelligence Services’ African affairs expert Teresa Nogueira Pinto says Turkey’s multifaceted investments are paying off, especially in the security sector. “Already an important presence in North Africa and the Horn of Africa, Ankara has…

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…