ADF

ADF STAFF Human rights advocates say fighters with Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces (RSF) murdered hundreds of civilians in al-Gezira State in revenge for the defection of a senior RSF commander in that region. RSF fighters attacked the community of al-Sireha in October after the defection of Abu Aqla Keikal, a former Army officer who joined the RSF after the conflict with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) broke out in April 2023. In a video posted to social media in October 2024, RSF fighters showed nearly 70 people, some with bloody clothing, being held at an intersection in the small agricultural…

ADF STAFF James was riding his motorcycle through northwest Burkina Faso on his way to Senegal when armed extremists abducted, blindfolded and took him back to their camp. After insisting he was not a spy and surviving the terrorist camp commander’s interrogation, a horde of fighters returned from an attack and fired their guns into the air. James, terrified, did not realize the gunfire was celebratory. “I thought that was the end. I was just sweating,” he said, recounting his 2019 experience for the first time in a December 2024 interview with the BBC, which gave him a pseudonym for…

ADF STAFF A pair of major 2024 attacks against Malian security forces and Russian mercenaries has some Bamako residents on edge. The sentiment in Mali’s capital is a departure from previous public displays of support for the ruling military junta led by Col. Assimi Goïta before the attacks and suggests that ongoing acceptance of the military might depend on its ability to provide security. That is according to Mvemba Phezo Dizolele, director and senior fellow of the Center for Strategic & International Studies (CSIS) Africa Program, and Cameron Hudson, a senior fellow with the program. The researchers produced a report…

ADF STAFF Hania was living in Fayu in Sudan’s South Kordofan State when fighters from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) arrived in the community. Three months pregnant at the time, Hania was abducted with other women and young girls and taken to a camp where they were imprisoned with 30 other women from the region. “They made a corral, like for animals, with wires and sticks,” Hania, 18, told Human Rights Watch (HRW). “Then they put us in chains. Ten girls to one set of chains.” Like other Nuba women interviewed by HRW, Hania was held as a sex slave.…

ADF STAFF A young farmer wielded a hoe under the unrelenting sun in the northeast Democratic Republic of the Congo’s Ituri province. A Soldier with the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (MONUSCO) stood nearby, protecting him. Along a dirt road, MONUSCO peacekeepers accompanied women and children who carried baskets of produce. Surrounding agricultural fields, blue helmets with rifles were poised to thwart any threats to the workers. For years, the region has been plagued by conflict between rebel groups, self-defense forces and other militias. The M23 terror group in particular is active in…

ADF STAFF The splintered Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) continues to bicker over many issues amid swirling security crises in Ethiopia’s northern region. Two years after a peace deal was signed to end a civil war, armed groups continue to operate in Tigray, while human trafficking and illegal gold mining networks further destabilize the area. Debretsion Gebremichael, who leads one faction, announced in late December 2024 that his side was launching a “peaceful struggle” during a meeting with senior leaders in Mekelle, but he did not elaborate on what that means. The announcement was made amid allegations from a TPLF…

ADF STAFF Pharaoh Taharqa was devoted to tradition. He built pyramids. He embraced titles, spoke the Egyptian language and used its writing system as his medium of record. He took on ambitious construction projects and was committed to the revitalization of Egyptian religious sites. But Taharqa, who ruled from 690 B.C. to 664 B.C., was not Egyptian. He was a Nubian from the Kingdom of Kush in what is now Sudan. He was one of the Nubian pharaohs of the 25th Dynasty. They ruled Egypt for almost 100 years. The dynasty’s rise to power in Egypt began with King Piye…

CLUES This site has one of the highest concentrations of rock art in the region, dating back at least 13,000 years. Archaeological evidence indicates the area has been occupied for at least 500,000 years. The rock formations are seen as the seat of ancestral spirits. The paintings represent evolving artistic styles and socio-religious beliefs. ANSWER  Matobo Hills, Zimbabwe

ADF STAFF Clashes between civilian prime ministers and military junta leaders in the Sahel are highlighting the unsteady nature of military-led governments in a region where terror attacks are multiplying. On December 6, Capt. Ibrahim Traore of Burkina Faso removed Prime Minister Apollinaire Kelem de Tambela, whom he had appointed to the position two years earlier. Traore also dissolved the government. The move came as Burkina Faso faces a deteriorating security situation with 13,500 people killed by extremist violence since the military took power in a coup in 2022. Armed groups now control more than half of the country. In…

ADF STAFF Authorities in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo’s South Kivu province arrested 17 Chinese men in mid-December after making an unannounced visit to a gold mine in the village of Karhembo. About 60 Chinese nationals were at the mine, and officials detained those who appeared to be in charge. “We asked them to present us with the company’s documents,” Bernard Muhindo, South Kivu’s finance minister and acting mines minister, told Reuters. “There were no documents, zero. No certificate, no status, no national identification, nothing.” Less than a week later, 14 of the men were released and headed…