ADF

ADF STAFF Algeria and Mali are locked in a diplomatic row. Bamako accuses Algiers of backing Malian separatist groups while Algeria has criticized Mali for failing to uphold a peace agreement with Tuareg rebels. The feud boiled over recently when Algerian Foreign Minister Ahmed Attaf opposed Mali’s plans to reclassify certain northern separatist groups as terrorist organizations. Attaf also criticized Mali’s heavy-handed counterterrorism efforts as ineffective. “A military solution is impossible in the Sahel and Sahara, particularly in Mali, as it has been attempted three times in the past and failed,” Attaf said in a December statement. Algeria has advocated…

As Sudan continues to be torn apart by civil war, Russia and Iran are fueling the conflict with shipments of arms and other goods. The countries are supplying the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) with guns, drones, fuel and parts for fighter jets as it battles the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is accused of arming the RSF. Bloomberg reporter Simon Marks recently spent time in Port Sudan, a strategic location on the Red Sea that is attractive to Russia and Iran. Marks reviewed satellite images and shipping data and interviewed Sudanese officials about deliveries from…

ADF STAFF About 1,000 kilometers east of Moscow, the Alabuga Special Economic Zone in Russia’s southern Tatarstan region has undergone a dramatic expansion of its secret drone manufacturing facilities. One of the keys to the operation, which is critical to the Kremlin’s war on neighboring Ukraine, has been the use of African women in the workforce. But many of the women have said they were duped into these dangerous jobs and are not allowed to leave. Several of the African participants’ home countries are unaware of their predicaments, according to Institute for Science and International Security founder David Albright, who…

ADF STAFF Gold is just one of the precious minerals found in abundance in South Kivu province in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC). But anger continues to swell among the people of the region as the scourges of illegal mining and smuggling deprive them of their land’s wealth. Several hundred people protested in the city of Bukavu on January 8 after the release of a group of Chinese men arrested on suspicion of illegal mining. Two Congolese men held a banner that read “South Kivu minerals should serve the development and well-being of local communities,” according to Agence…

ADF STAFF Ghana in early January bolstered its maritime security capabilities when it commissioned a forward operating base in Ezinlibo, in the western region and received a Japanese-made ship at the Sekondi Naval Base. The Ezinlibo forward operating base (FOB) is now the country’s largest naval station and is expected to provide logistical support and personnel accommodation while supporting the Ghana Navy’s efforts to combat illegal fishing, piracy and other security threats in the Gulf of Guinea. The Ezinlibo base joins a network of FOBs across the country, including those at Bui, Kenyase and Sankore. New ones are planned for…

ADF STAFF Nigeria’s military has launched a campaign against members of the Lakurawa, a group of Islamic State-affiliated terrorists attacking communities in the northwest of the country near the border with Niger. Lakurawa is made up of herders whom local leaders in Sokoto State hired in 2016 to help residents of remote rural communities fight bandits. “When they came, the community considered them a savior,” analyst John Sunday Ojo recently told the BBC. However, after getting rid of the bandits in 2017, Lakurawa soon took their place, turning on the communities the group had been hired to protect. The group…

ADF STAFF Niger’s ruling junta took power in July 2023 promising to restore security to areas of the country ravaged by extremist violence. More than 18 months later, the situation has only worsened. Attacks on Nigerien Soldiers and civilians in December left dozens dead and served as another reminder of how the junta led by Gen. Abdourahamane Tchiani is facing more serious challenges than the government it overthrew. According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data, extremists affiliated with Islamic State have killed about 1,600 civilians since the coup, compared to 770 before. Meanwhile, al-Qaida affiliate Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam…

ADF STAFF Security forces in the Puntland region of Somalia recently destroyed several operating bases for Islamic State (IS-Somalia) in the Cal Miskaad Mountains at the country’s northern tip. The mountains have become a haven for IS-Somalia and a magnet for foreign fighters moving into Somalia both from neighboring African countries and from the Middle East across the Gulf of Aden. Security forces found a Saudi passport among the items captured in the raid, according to the Somalia National News Agency. The attacks in the Cal Miskaad region were part of a broader strategy by Puntland authorities to enlist the…

ADF STAFF As ethnic violence continues to roil Ethiopia, some believe religious leaders can play a critical role in the peacebuilding process. Yirga Damtie, a scholar at the Southern Voices Network for Peacebuilding, who spoke during a discussion hosted by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars’ Africa Program, says it’s time to empower these leaders to push for peace. In recent years religious institutions have provided humanitarian aid, offered psychosocial and financial support, helped with public service delivery and acted as mediators between civilians and armed groups in conflict areas where government access is limited. “Religion is considered as…

ADF STAFF Communal violence has surged in South Sudan’s Warrap State and Central Equatoria State, and it continues to be the primary driver of conflict throughout the country, according to the United Nations peacekeeping mission there known as UNMISS. In a recent report, UNMISS chief Nicholas Haysom noted that the highest number of victims killed and injured were in Warrap State, accounting for 60% of civilian casualties in the third quarter of 2024. The majority of abduction victims, most of them men, were from Central Equatoria State, constituting 69% of all documented abductions in the country. Conflict-related sexual violence also…