ADF

Zambia has unveiled more than $5.8 million in new infrastructure for its Kenneth Kaunda Peace Training Centre, the country’s flagship institution for training military personnel, police officers and civilians for international peace support operations. The handover from the United States at the facility in Lusaka underscores the decades-long security partnership between the two countries and their shared commitment to strengthening African peacekeeping capabilities, U.S. and Zambian officials said. The upgrades include a 400-seat dining hall, outdoor classrooms, an indoor skills range, four secure ammunition storage containers and support for logistical improvements. The center’s new amenities include $4 million to support…

Instability has been a fixture in Central African Republic since at least 2004, when a three-year civil war engulfed the country followed by years of insurgent battles. In an effort to restore order, the government invited Russian Wagner Group mercenaries to serve as trainers in early 2018. By 2019, Wagner had more than 1,000 mercenaries in the CAR, where they embedded in the nation’s political, economic and social institutions, targeting gold, diamonds and timber for extraction. What has emerged is a conflict economy where mercenaries and others profit from continuing chaos in the nation. “Wagner not only infiltrated local markets…

As African militaries increasingly explore AI to boost their capabilities, experts say that it’s crucial to remember the most important element in any AI system is the human element. “The human being needs always to stay at the center of things — in the loop,” Col. Abdel-Aziz Fall, commandant of the Signal Corps Training School for the Armed Forces of Senegal, said during a recent webinar hosted by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies. Fall and counterterrorism expert Niccola Milnes of NVM Consulting shared their expertise during the webinar “Artificial Intelligence and Counterterrorism.” “We need to understand that AI is…

With terrorism, military conflicts, blockades and piracy threatening the Gulf of Aden and Middle Eastern waters, major shipping companies have chosen to use shipping routes near South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope to better protect their crews and cargo. However, experts say that the increase in rerouted ship traffic could expose some of South Africa’s most significant maritime security blind spots. Two researchers with the Pretoria-based Institute for Security Studies, Timothy Walker and Daniela Marggraff, attended a roundtable hosted by the institute at the University of Pretoria on March 31. The subject — the Cape of Good Hope sea route…

The latest outbreak of Ebola in the Democratic Republic of the Congo has spread with terrifying speed as hundreds of cases and dozens of deaths were reported in just one week in June. With more than 1,000 confirmed cases, the outbreak is now the second largest on record. The disease is concentrated primarily in the northeastern province of Ituri, and cases also have been found in North Kivu and South Kivu — all in the far reaches of eastern DRC, where terrorists and armed groups make the response to a health emergency even more challenging. But the DRC previously has…

The recent killings of a top Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) commander and three lieutenants in northeast Nigeria has left the group in organizational disarray amid ongoing battles with Nigerian forces and rival terror group Boko Haram. Troops with Nigeria’s Operation Hadin Kai and U.S. Africa Command, or AFRICOM, killed top commander Abu-Bilal al-Minuki, also known as Abu-Mainok, on May 16 in Borno State. Also killed were Mallam Haruna, Abu Huraira and Ba Yuram. The four terrorists were key operational, logistical and security operatives, Zagazola Makama, a counterinsurgency and security expert, wrote on X. Nigeria’s Chief of Defense Intelligence,…

Russian forces supporting Mali’s military junta have begun using kamikaze-style first-person-view (FPV) drones to attack rebel positions in the north of the country, mirroring the tactics Tuareg rebels and terrorists have used relentlessly to drive military forces from their bases in the region. The introduction of FPV attack drones comes after Africa Corps and the Malian military have suffered multiple defeats at the hands of the Tuareg-based Azawad Liberation Front (FLA) and its rival-turned-ally Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) across Mali’s northern provinces. The most significant of those defeats — the loss in April of Kidal after more than two…

Members of the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) continue to defect to the Sudanese Army, but the presence of RSF fighters in areas where they are accused of committing atrocities against civilians angers those who witnessed the carnage. In May, Ali “Al-Safna” Rizqallah, a former RSF commander who defected alongside other senior figures, was granted a military rank, the Asharq Al-Awsat newspaper reported. Al-Safna played key roles in the battles of Kordofan and El-Fasher. The United Nations found that the 18-month siege on El-Fasher ended in a deadly spree that showed the “hallmarks of genocide.” Many locals believe the RSF…

The recent delivery of 48 armored vehicles to the Tunisian Army is expected to help the country’s military conduct security operations, joint and combined exercises and rapid response missions across the region. Official unveiled the high-mobility multipurpose wheeled vehicles (Humvees)  during a June 4 ceremony at the El Aouina military base in Tunis, the capital. Humvees are often used to transport troops, conduct medical evacuations and perform combat patrols, and are known to be reliable in extremely harsh environments. They are expected to help combat smuggling and militant activities along the borders with Algeria and Libya. “These vehicles will enhance the operational capabilities…

In parts of the world such as Ukraine, Myanmar and Japan, the Chinese government has been accused of employing “two-faced diplomacy.” It’s a strategy of publicly pledging peace, economic cooperation and regional stability while aggressively positioning its military and taking actions that fuel violence. There are examples in Africa as well, where Beijing’s official stances are in direct contradiction with its actions. In Sudan’s civil war, China claims to seek peace as a potential mediator. But that position is starkly contrasted by the proliferation of weapons manufactured by its state-owned companies, which prolong the conflict by supplying both sides. Geopolitical…