ADF

A kamikaze drone attack on Sudan’s wartime capital, Port Sudan, in early May threatens to turn Sudan’s 3-year-old conflict into a broader regional war, according to a Sudanese official. The attack has implications for Turkey and the United Arab Emirates, which support opposing sides in the conflict. “Until recently, this conflict could be described as a proxy war [between Turkey and the UAE]. However, it has taken a dangerous turn, verging on a regional war, with the UAE’s barely concealed direct intervention,” Babikir Elamin, Sudan’s ambassador to the United Kingdom, recently told the U.K. parliament. The fighting that began in…

The Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) group has launched at least 12 attacks on military bases and infrastructure across northeast Nigeria since March. The brazen attacks that employ drones carrying grenades and bombs placed near roads and bridges are alarming observers. The attacks are also evidence of a terror group with significant sources of funding. The terror group has moved beyond collecting ransoms and taxes. It has transformed parts of northeastern Nigeria into a conflict-driven economy through a complex blend of taxation, extortion, smuggling and ideological justification, HumAngle reported. ISWAP has turned to the dark web to generate revenue by exploiting the…

Terrorist groups such as Boko Haram and al-Shabaab have long had a simple philosophy for controlling the people they can’t win over: Take away their food. For years, their attacks against markets, supply sources and farmers have reduced food availability. They have contaminated and destroyed farmland in ways that make it unusable for years. In a 2025 study, researchers Simone Papale and Emanuele Castelli quoted a farmer in Somalia as saying, “wherever al-Shabaab goes, drought follows.” Warfare and terrorist violence always have been linked to food security problems, starvation and famine. Terrorism can cause food disruptions, undermining production systems and…

The military government of Niger has terminated its intelligence cooperation with Russia and Turkey, saying the surveillance systems and related personnel failed to live up to expectations. Niger’s General Directorate of Documentation and External Security was particularly upset with the quality of telephone communications interceptions, according to Military Africa. Niger instead turned to a Moroccan company specializing in digital intelligence. That deal soured quickly when Niger learned that the company had an indirect connection with France. Since the July 2023 military coup that ousted President Mohamed Bazoum, the Niger junta’s foreign policy has excluded traditional Western partners. Since that time,…

The people posing as job recruiters promised lucrative work in Canada, but their victims soon found themselves held against their will in Côte d’Ivoire and forced to lure new victims into the trap. In all, 33 people from Benin, Burkina Faso, Ghana and Togo were tricked into paying as much as $9,000 each to fake recruiters in a human trafficking operation that investigators described as a pyramid scheme. Victims were held in abusive conditions in Abidjan, where their traffickers forced them to post pictures of themselves on social media accounts in luxury hotels and similar glamorous settings to lure others…

The Ghana Armed Forces on May 8 received 14 Puma M36 Mk3 Armored Personnel Carriers from the United States government amid rising security threats from the Sahel. The mine-resistant, ambush-protected carriers, or APCs, were delivered to the Burma Camp in Accra and are worth more than $6 million. Edward Omane Boamah, Ghana’s minister for defense, was grateful for the donation, which he called “generous and strategic.” “This occasion is not just a symbol of the enduring partnership between our two countries,” Boamah said in a report by Ghanaian news website MyJoyOnline. “It is a tangible expression of our shared commitment…

The trial of six people, including a member of a notorious Mexican drug cartel, in a Kenyan court is highlighting the changing nature and corrosive influence of the illicit drug business in East Africa. Kenyan authorities arrested the six last year during a raid on a makeshift methamphetamine lab in the countryside near Namanga, a community on the border with Tanzania. Among those arrested were three Kenyans, two Nigerians and Israel Alvarado, who law enforcement authorities say is a member of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, one of Mexico’s most dangerous criminal organizations. The Namanga lab was the first confirmed…

Effective communication is key to ensuring the success of military training events such as Obangame Express 2025, the largest multinational maritime exercise in Western and Central Africa. The annual exercise aims to build cooperation among nations to fight sea crimes such as illegal fishing, piracy and trafficking. This year’s two-week exercise, which ended May 16, included visit, board, search and seizure training in Senegal, where participants overcame language barriers to complete tasks. Gambian Sailors were lauded for their communications skills after stepping in as English, French and Portuguese interpreters while participants practiced tactical ship entries and learned search and evidence-handling…

Throughout West Africa it has become difficult to avoid the blitz of viral videos, memes and social media posts glorifying the military rulers of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Experts say that there has been a calculated campaign to elevate the stature of one man in particular: Capt. Ibrahim Traoré, the youngest leader on the continent, who seized power by overthrowing Burkina Faso’s previous military junta in 2022. “I’ve never seen anything like it,” host Martine Dennis said in the May 13 episode of her Africa Here & Now podcast. “Ibrahim Traoré seems to be online, everywhere, all the time.…

In preparing for a raid on a notorious illegal mining settlement known as Abrewa Ni Nkrane, members of the Ghana Armed Forces and the Forestry Commission expected to find about 2,000 illegal miners. At sunrise on April 15, they discovered a much bigger operation. The sprawling hideout near the Subri Forest Reserve was home to more than 10,000 people, including foreign nationals from Burkina Faso, Guinea, Mali, Niger and Nigeria. “The sheer number of people we are going to arrest would not even fit in our vehicles, and there is no jail facility that can post them all,” Western Regional…