ADF

The discovery and dismantling of a terrorist cell linked to the al-Qaida-affiliated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) was surprising news in Guinea in March. Weeks later, the government announced the creation of an interagency Special Operations Command to prevent and counter the spread of terrorism. Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces Gen. Ibrahima Sory Bangoura hailed the command as symbolic of the modernization of Guinea’s defense forces in the face of new security challenges. “The creation of this new command tool responds to a major challenge: the need to confront threats that have become more complex and…

Comoros, Djibouti, Somalia and Sudan are among 14 nations that signed the Multinational Maritime Defence Alliance, a partnership that aims to protect sea traffic in the Bab el‑Mandeb Strait, Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea. Other participating nations are Bahrain, Bangladesh, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and Yemen. The countries are expected to collaborate on intelligence sharing, joint exercises and coordinated patrols, according to the Africa Ports & Ships digital news publication. Officials signed the pact in late July amid increasing Somali pirate attacks, ongoing threats from Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthi rebels against Saudi‑linked shipping and other…

As Mozambique’s battle against terrorists nears a decade, the country is investing in a new center to understand the problem and support the fight. It created the National Centre for the Prevention and Combating of Terrorism and Violent Extremism in 2025 under the control of the Mozambique Defense Armed Forces. In April of this year, members of the counterterrorism center (CTC) met with the United Nations Counter-Terrorism Committee Executive Directorate to identify ways the U.N. can support an integrated national counterterrorism response in Mozambique. According to analyst Borges Nhamirre of the Institute for Security Studies, the new CTC is a…

Authorities arrested five people, including two Mexican nationals, at a crystal methamphetamine manufacturing facility at a rural farm in the Limpopo province of South Africa in late August. Two Zimbabwean nationals and one Malawian national were also arrested on charges pertaining to the manufacture and possession of illicit drugs. Officials seized drugs and drug manufacturing equipment worth $37.5 million at the facility. The arrests were the result of a collaborative operation involving members of the Hawks, the South African Police Service [SAPS] branch that specializes in fighting organized crime, and officers from the country’s narcotics bureau, Crime Intelligence Bureau and Special…

As African countries stake their claim to space by developing satellites, China has folded space missions into its Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Experts note, however, that space-related cooperation comes with debt, operating costs and other financial risks associated with other BRI projects. “China’s space collaborations are structured to advance its own industrial and military goals at the cost of asymmetric outcomes to foreign partners,” researchers Cortney Weinbaum, Christopher G. Pernin, Camille Reeves, Libby Weaver and Shanshan Mei wrote in a recent Rand Corp. report. Countries that work with China on space projects typically find that funding depends on using…

The alliance between the Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) Tuareg-led separatist movement and the al-Qaeda-affiliated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) terror group is reshaping the dynamics of Malian conflict. The groups’ coordination was clear on April 25 when they attacked the northeastern desert town of Kidal, forcing Malian soldiers and Russian Africa Corps mercenaries to retreat. That day, they also attacked Bamako, the national capital, and Kati, both in the southwest; Gao, in the northeast; and Mopti and Sévaré in central Mali. The Kati assault killed Gen. Sadio Camara, Mali’s defense minister and veterans affairs minister. On July 5, the groups attacked…

The Ebola outbreak that started in the northeastern Democratic Republic of the Congo about four months ago had sickened more than 6,000 people and killed nearly 3,000 by the end of August as the virus spread to the country’s sixth province. The outbreak is now considered the fastest-growing one yet in the DRC, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), although the true extent of the outbreak is not known. It was declared on May 15, but the WHO says sequencing showed it began in February. The West African Ebola outbreak killed 11,325 people from 2014 to 2016. Tom Fletcher,…

Daniel Ángel Masie Nchama is one of the few lucky ones. The 22-year-old computer science student from Equatorial Guinea was tricked into fighting for Russia on the front lines in Ukraine and lived to tell his tale. A Cameroonian named Fabrice recruited Nchama with the promise of a job as a bodyguard in Russia. He left with 37 other African recruits in December 2025. When they arrived in Murmansk in the far north, they were given a Russian-language contract to sign. “We said we couldn’t sign documents we didn’t understand,” Nchama told Agence France-Presse. “They insisted, saying it was too…

More than 1,000 kilometers separate Islamic State group (IS) affiliates in the Lake Chad Basin and the Liptako-Gourma corner of the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). However, analysts say the two groups increasingly are able to work together because of porous borders and a lack of regional security cooperation. In recent months, Lake Chad-based Islamic State West African Province (ISWAP) has invested time and manpower supporting the Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP), which is based where Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger come together. That help includes plans to send 100 ISWAP fighters to buttress ISSP in the Ménaka region after…

Since Sudan’s civil war began in 2022, mercenaries from Chad, Ethiopia, Libya and South Sudan have operated in the country along with some from distant nations. They include fighters from Russia’s Wagner Group who already had gold interests there, rival Ukrainian drone operators who worked for both sides, and freelancers from the Sahel. New reporting has revealed that Colombian mercenaries accused of committing atrocities in Sudan were recruited and trained by a shadow network based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). The Financial Times (FT) newspaper interviewed seven Colombian mercenaries who requested anonymity before detailing their deployment to Sudan. Some…