ADF

ADF STAFF Intensifying gun battles and explosions drove Prudent Kahindo and her three children from their home in February. When they arrived at an informal camp for displaced people outside the city of Goma, they found their lives were no less threatened. “Life is extremely complicated here, we have no tarpaulin and no food,” she told The New Humanitarian magazine. “We ask for help because people here risk dying from hunger.” For years, Goma, the largest city in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), has attracted the displaced in search of safety and humanitarian aid. Makeshift displacement camps already…

ADF STAFF The Russian invasion of Ukraine in early 2022 disrupted grain shipments to countries across Africa. In response, Russia has begun shipping free grain to six African countries, but those shipments come with strings attached. According to Zimbabwean economist Godfrey Kanyenze, Russia is exploiting the suffering of African citizens for its own benefit. Kanyenze is the founding director of Zimbabwe’s Labor and Economic Research Institute. “It’s strategic in the sense that Russia realizes these countries are in need, and basically takes advantage of that specific need,” Kanyenze told CNN. “It’s geopolitics at play. The major string is to control…

ADF STAFF A few minutes after recess ended, gunmen emerged from the surrounding forest and began firing their weapons near the school in North Kivu, Democratic Republic of the Congo. “I heard explosions and other loud noises,” a 12-year-old student identified as Bahati told the nongovernmental organization Save the Children. “We fled, without even thinking. Everyone fled into another direction.” In the chaos that followed, people from the community escaped to Goma. “People walked for two days,” Bahati said. “People were separated from their families. Children without parents and parents without their children.” The attack on Bahati’s school was part…

ADF STAFF Since Burkina Faso’s ruling junta came to power in September 2022, the leadership increasingly has relied on the poorly trained and lightly armed Volunteers for the Defense of the Fatherland (VDP) to serve as front-line forces to battle extremists. Experts believe the strategy has led to thousands of civilian deaths, driven attacks on communities providing volunteers and shredded the country’s social fabric. “The use of VDPs is a double-edged sword,” analysts with the Crisis Group wrote recently. While the volunteers help extend the reach of the Burkinabe armed forces’ counterinsurgency operations, they also suffer heavy casualties and have…

ADF STAFF Increasing attacks by Somali pirates are exacerbating global shipping and fueling maritime insecurity around East Africa. After a six-year lull in major pirate attacks, there have been more than 20 attempted hijackings since November, Reuters reported. The raids are heightening risks and adding insurance costs onto shipping companies also contending with repeated attacks by Yemen’s Houthi militia in the Red Sea and other regional waters. Two Somali gang members told Reuters they were taking advantage of the Houthi distraction to get back into piracy. “They took this chance because the international naval forces that operate off the coast of…

ADF STAFF Nigeria’s Chief of Defence Staff, Gen. Christopher Gwabin Musa, has fond memories of his childhood in Sokoto. “Growing up as a kid in Nigeria, it was so peaceful,” he told the BBC during a video interview released on March 28. “As junior officers, I remember we would travel all through the night, no harm. So, it is a rude shock what is going on.” The rude shock for all Nigerians is the scourge of complex, overlapping security challenges in every region of Africa’s most populous country — problems that are Musa’s job to solve. Nigeria is faced with…

ADF STAFF Nahom Halefom, 13, was playing outside with two friends near the town of Queshet in central Tigray. His mother was watching. “I took my eyes off him for a moment. Then I heard the explosion,” she told The Ethiopian Reporter newspaper for an article published on March 23. Everyone in the area rushed to the scene, but none dared enter what likely was a minefield. Neighbors ran to find veterans whose experience in the two-year Tigrayan war included navigating minefields. “He was in agony, unconscious,” Nahom’s mother said. “All I could do was stand and watch and wait.”…

ADF STAFF Nigerian authorities are working to contain a thriving illicit weapons market in Lagos as local manufacturers of illegal guns continuously hone their trade. Local illegal gun factories are known for producing imitation weapons that look like the originals. In October 2023, authorities in Lagos busted a blacksmith’s factory that was a cover for manufacturing illegal firearms. Authorities seized single- and double-barreled guns, pistols, cartridges and drilling machines during the raid, which ended in the arrests of a notorious gang leader and more than 30 suspects. “See how perfect this fabricated AK-47 is. It’s unbelievable,” Nigeria Police Force spokesperson…

ADF STAFF It was after midnight on December 8, 2023, when armed rebels from Cameroon’s English-speaking separatist movement raided the border community of Belegete, firing guns and kicking in doors. Muwah Augustine was visiting his parents when men broke into their house. “I was asleep when the terror group arrived in the night, shooting sporadically at people,” Augustine told HumAngle. “They collected our phones, broke them and gave us the worst beating of our lives.” Three days later, Augustine still was searching for his parents, who vanished during the mayhem. Belegete is a border community without a checkpoint where people…

ADF STAFF New reporting shows how North Korean diplomats stationed in Southern Africa are smuggling large volumes of rhino horn out of the region to buyers in China and other countries. The millions of dollars in proceeds help North Korea evade international sanctions and fund its nuclear weapons program. The illegal trade in wildlife parts is just one strand in the larger web of criminal and illicit activities by North Korea. Historically, North Korea has used its diplomats to conceal money laundering and the smuggling of alcohol, drugs, gold, ivory and tobacco. The money flows into the hands of the…