ADF

Nigeria’s battle with terrorism is colliding with a rapidly expanding digital ecosystem, and video-sharing platform TikTok is emerging as terror groups’ app of choice. The Islamic State group and al-Qaida have long maintained robust media networks, using newsletters, photos and videos on numerous digital platforms to radicalize, recruit, coordinate, fundraise, and spread religious and propaganda messages and misinformation. With its rapid adoption in recent years, TikTok has given terrorists new opportunities to extend their reach. “Armed groups now operate simultaneously as offline combatants and online influencers,” Nigerian researcher Mustapha Alhassan wrote in a February commentary for independent think tank ODI…

Vessels connected to Russia’s widely sanctioned “shadow fleet” are abusing continental shipping registries to continue exporting oil and fund Moscow’s war with Ukraine. Russia uses African shipping registries to obscure the true ownership of the shadow fleet’s 591 aging, oil tankers that carry up to 4.1 million barrels of oil a day. The fleet, which also has begun carrying natural gas, generates about $100 billion annually. According to researchers at the Robert Lansing Institute, shipping registries in Africa often have weak mechanisms to verify a vessel’s registration, operators and ownership. Russia commonly registers its vessels under “false flags,” while its…

The Kenya Navy discovered more than a metric ton of methamphetamine when it intercepted the MV Mashallah, a small, unregistered fishing boat, about 340 nautical miles east of the coastal Kenyan town of Lamu in October 2025. Authorities arrested six Iranians on charges of trafficking the drug, which was valued at $63.4 million and found to be 98% pure. The seizure was the result of a coordinated multinational operation targeting drug trafficking along Indian Ocean shipping lanes. Authorities said the boat was bound for Kenya. Once known as a transit hub for illegal drugs, the East African coast is becoming a…

ADF STAFF Terrorist groups are experimenting with AI to spread their ideology and make attacks more deadly. But security professionals are finding that the tool is just as valuable when used to protect citizens from these groups. “AI-powered surveillance tools can track terrorist movements, analyze suspicious financial transactions and detect radicalization patterns on social media platforms,” Mahmoud Ali Youssouf, African Union Commission chairperson, said during a 2025 gathering of the AU Peace and Security Council. Al-Qaida and the Islamic State group have embraced online technology, and each has sought to create a “digital caliphate” that reaches across international borders and…

ADF STAFF Women living under the yoke of al-Shabaab terrorists suffer from abuse, coercion and severe social isolation. But a new report shows that they also play key roles in many of the group’s deadly attacks. Across Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda, women are being recruited or forced to join the terror group, according to “Women Inside Al-Shabaab,” published by Wargelin Analytica, a think tank that studies the Horn of Africa. The report shows the dual identity women have as victims and enablers of the group’s operations. It explains how women enter the group through marriage or family ties…

ADF STAFF Methamphetamine cooks supplied by Mexican drug cartels have been discovered working at several drug laboratories in Africa over the past two years. Several arrests, including Nigeria’s largest-ever meth bust in May, have occurred as Mexico’s Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation cartels expand their operations under a franchise-style business model. The cartels are accused of funding continental terrorists, armed groups and criminal groups that help them produce and move the drugs. “The relationship between cartels and drug use and terrorism is very, very simple,” Nigerian organized crime expert Faisal Sanusi Ibrahim told news service Deutsche Welle (DW). “The terrorists…

ADF STAFF Piloting a drone, award-winning journalist and documentary filmmaker Edem Srem flies high above polluted waterways in his native Ghana to show the scale of environmental devastation from illegal gold mining, known locally as galamsey. The land is pock-marked with large and small mining pits filled with water that looks like coffee with heavy cream. Srem is sounding an alarm that galamsey is not just an environmental disaster. It also has become a dangerous criminal enterprise that threatens national and regional security. “[Galamsey] supports a sprawling illicit economy involving hundreds of thousands of miners, transnational financiers, foreign operators, gold…

ADF STAFF A string of devastating attacks by Sahelian terror groups in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have shown Russian mercenaries’ inability to provide security. Now, Russia appears to be pivoting to an alternate strategy. Joseph Siegle, director of research at the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, said the Kremlin is using its well-established blueprint of deploying propaganda and false information as a precursor to expanding its presence. The target: coastal West Africa. “Russia’s Sahel strategy is collapsing, but that hasn’t slowed its ambitions in Africa,” he wrote in a July social media post. “Even as its influence in the…

ADF STAFF As it seeks to expand its territory, the Sahelian terror organization Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin has launched violent attacks in the border areas of multiple Gulf of Guinea countries with one exception: Ghana. Ghana’s northern region next to Burkina Faso is a place of porous borders, light governmental presence and high economic insecurity. Residents of both countries routinely cross the border outside of formal crossing points. Experts call the light governmental presence a “sovereignty gap.” It has created a haven where JNIM fighters rest, recuperate from injuries at local hospitals, and restock food and weapons. They then cross…

ADF STAFF In June, soldiers from Mali and Niger graduated from special forces training in Isparta, Türkiye, becoming the latest example of the Turkish military’s growing influence in Africa. Over the past decade, Türkiye has expanded its presence on the continent through training and arms sales. The so-called “Somalia model” takes its name from Türkiye’s arrival in Mogadishu in 2017 to help the Somali military fight al-Shabaab. Somalia’s Camp TurkSom, which includes a training academy, is Türkiye’s largest overseas military base. Türkiye’s influence grew rapidly after its 2019-20 intervention in Libya on the side of the internationally recognized government in…