ADF

ADF STAFF What began as Ethiopia’s aspiration to regain access to the Red Sea turned into a threat of force against its coastal neighbors in late 2023 and is now fueling fears of war. Last year, critics in the Horn of Africa region denounced Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s thinly veiled statements as intimidation. He has called his landlocked country’s borders a “geographic prison” and referred to the Red Sea as Ethiopia’s “natural boundary.” He has urged Eritrea, Djibouti and Somalia to negotiate port access in order “to ensure lasting peace.” “We want to get a port by peaceful means,…

ADF STAFF Days after the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) took control of Sudan’s second-largest city, the militia’s leader launched a diplomatic tour of East African countries in an attempt, observers say, to portray himself as a viable leader. Gen. Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo visited Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda on a tour that echoed a similar trip his rival, Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, had made a few weeks before as both men tried to rally regional players to their side of the conflict. Hemedti also visited Ghana and South Africa. “Hemedti desperately needs people to feel that the RSF…

ADF STAFF The United Arab Emirates’ support for the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) in Sudan’s civil war is drawing criticism from observers who say it is fanning the flames of violence. The UAE’s support for RSF leader Gen. Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo has played a key role in his battlefield successes, according to Giorgio Cafiero, CEO of Gulf State Analytics risk consultancy. In mid-December 2023, RSF fighters took over Wad Madani, the capital of Gezira State in Sudan’s agricultural heartland, with little resistance from the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). The city southeast of Khartoum had been a refuge for people…

ADF STAFF As commander of the Nigerian Army’s Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC), Maj. Gen. Kevin Aligbe believes that Soldiers should constantly be working to get better. That is why the army continuously reviews its education modules, which was the primary goal of its annual five-day conference at TRADOC headquarters in Minna, Niger State, from January 8 to 12. “Without training, you cannot fight,” he said during the conference. “The doctrine gives us the latitude and spirit about how we should fight. When you train properly based on the doctrine, which is also something that comes from experience from past…

ADF STAFF Growing up in internally displaced persons camps in northern Uganda in the 1980s, Hakim Owiny was surrounded by armed conflict. There was suffering all around, but the sting of disinformation seared into his memory. Rumors spread that the people in the camps were violent, and those false characterizations fueled further waves of violence, division and unrest. Today, Owiny is a 37-year-old civic educator who works in his Lamwo district community to teach young people about the benefits of inclusive dialogue and the dangers of disinformation. “Disinformation is one of the most destructive camouflaged lethal weapons among people living…

ADF STAFF Liberia’s journey with United Nations peacekeeping forces has come full circle over the course of two decades. In need of support after 14 years of unrest and two civil wars, the West African country hosted a U.N. peacekeeping mission in 2003. Ten years later, the rebuilt Armed Forces of Liberia (AFL) deployed a platoon as part of the U.N. stabilization mission in Mali (MINUSMA). On December 21, 2023, with the closure of MINUSMA, Liberia’s contingent of 162 peacekeepers returned home from Mali and was greeted with gratitude and pride. “You are now the beacon of hope, not only…

ADF STAFF Mairame Ba joined a unique group of women in 2022 when she graduated from a six-month training course to become one of Senegal’s first “Solar Mamas.” The course, run by India’s Barefoot College International, aims to train women in villages across Africa to become experts in building and maintaining solar power systems for their communities. “I never imagined that I could become a solar energy professional at my age — and without ever having been to school,” Ba, then 59, told The Wall Street Journal after graduating in 2022. The Solar Mamas program is an example of India’s…

ADF STAFF Having secured most of the Cabo Delgado region, the Mozambique Defence Armed Forces plan to sever supply lines for the few terrorists hiding in the Catupa Forest as they push to rid the country of the threat entirely. With the help of Rwanda Security Forces and troops from the Southern African Development Community, Mozambique has eliminated more than 90% of terrorist operations in the Cabo Delgado region. The remaining 200 to 250 terrorists survive in small groups without a base of operations and are hiding in the Catupa Forest, according to Mozambique Defence Forces Commander Maj. Gen. Tiago…

ADF STAFF A United Nations helicopter in mid-January was conducting a medical evacuation when a technical problem forced it to make an emergency landing in an area long controlled by al-Shabaab in central Somalia. The terror group abducted six people and shot another person dead as they tried to flee. The incident underlined the struggles Somalia has faced since it asked the U.N. in September to delay the planned drawdown of 3,000 African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) Soldiers. The attack and others show that al-Shabaab still poses a threat and highlights challenges faced by the Somali National Army…

ADF STAFF In early December, a Maltese-flagged merchant ship was hijacked off the coast of Somalia. It is believed to be the first successful attack on a merchant ship in the region since 2017. Gerry Northwood, a former captain who commanded warships in the region with Britain’s Royal Navy, told Reuters the attacks indicate that pirates “think they have a permissive environment ashore.” Somalia’s nearly 3,400-kilometer coastline, which includes the Gulf of Aden, the Guardafui Channel and Western Indian Ocean waters, is extremely difficult to police. “Add to which naval patrols are thin on the ground and security on ships…