ADF

ADF STAFF With growing demand for electricity, African nations are exploring the potential for nuclear power — a prospect that has prompted calls for better training aimed at safeguarding nuclear materials against potential terrorist threats. South Africa is the lone country on the continent with a functional nuclear power station, which it plans to expand in 2024. Algeria, Ghana, and Morocco operate research reactors capable of generating small amounts of radioactive material. Egypt, Morocco and Uganda are actively working on agreements to develop their own nuclear power programs and could have functioning reactors within less than a decade, according to…

ADF STAFF As one regional force departs the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), another is arriving to take its place. At the request of the Congolese government, the East African Community Regional Force (EACRF) has begun its withdrawal while the Southern African Development Community (SADC) is deploying to the chaotic battlefield that is the eastern DRC. “EACRF will be handing over security responsibilities in eastern DRC to SADC forces,” the regional force said in a December 3 post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. “Elaborate plans have been put in place to ensure a smooth handover…

ADF STAFF Community leaders in Babanousa in Sudan’s West Kordofan State hoped their truce with the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) would prevent the violence that has devastated the country from consuming their community. They were wrong. The truce came after an assault by RSF fighters on the SAF’s 22nd Infantry Division the previous week that sent Babanousa residents fleeing for their lives. On November 30, one day after the truce was signed, two shells fell on the base, injuring one SAF soldier. This is one of many signs that the fighting is expanding and…

ADF STAFF West Africa has transitioned over the past decade from a transit route for illegal drugs headed to Europe from South America to a booming illegal drug market with a troubling rise in domestic users. That is among the findings of a three-year study by the West African Epidemiology Network on Drug Use (WENDU) that examined emerging trends in regional drug and substance use, prevalence, and treatment from 2020 to 2022. The study was coordinated by the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Weak and ineffective governance institutions, socio-economic challenges, political instability and overlapping security issues drove the…

ADF STAFF Gladys Kamasanyu frequently travels about an hour outside of Uganda’s capital, Kampala, to the Entebbe Zoo, where she feeds, pets and even talks to rhinos, elephants, pangolins and other endangered animals. She also talks to the staff at the zoo, known as the Uganda Wildlife Conservation Education Center, to get updates on smuggling, trafficking and poaching. These crimes often are linked to international crime syndicates and high demand associated with traditional Chinese medicine (TCM). As the chief magistrate of Uganda’s Standard Utilities and Wildlife Court, the first of its kind in Africa, Kamasanyu considers herself a voice for…

ADF STAFF Recent interethnic fighting in the disputed Abyei Administrative Area between Sudan and South Sudan is the latest complication in the already complex effort to resolve the region’s status — an effort that is being sidetracked by the conflict in Sudan. An attack on two communities within Abyei on November 20 left dozens dead and a leader of the South Sudan People’s Defence Forces (SSPDF) defending his Soldiers against claims they participated in the attack. The attack was preceded by fighting on November 13 between the Twic and Ngok factions of the Dinka ethnic group that included an attack…

ADF STAFF Angola has spent most of its time as an independent nation at war. It knows the cost of conflict and the dividends of peace. Now, more than 20 years after a peace agreement was signed to end the country’s civil war, Angola is trying to export peace across Africa through mediation and peacekeeping efforts. “We have learnt all those lessons, and we think that a country cannot develop with war. You develop a country with peace,” Samwel Abilio Sianga, Angola’s ambassador to Kenya, told Nation.Africa. Angola’s 27-year civil war killed nearly 1 million people and displaced 4 million.…

ADF STAFF Somalia has one year to eradicate al-Shabaab from the country and end 17 years of war, President Hassan Sheikh Mohamud announced in late November. The al-Qaida-linked terrorist group has been launching attacks in Somalia since 2006, during which it has caused the deaths of thousands and displaced millions. Speaking to a crowd at London’s Royal United Services Institute, Mohamud said African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) forces are working to eliminate the remaining al-Shabaab fighters in the country, but their efforts are hamstrung by recent flooding. ATMIS, which includes troops from Burundi, Djibouti, Ethiopia, Kenya and Uganda,…

ADF STAFF Cyberattacks targeted a maritime company an average of every three days in September and October, according to alerts published by safety4sea, a shipping industry news source. Although the alerts did not pertain to ships in African waters, the Regional Maritime Information Fusion Center (RMIFC)in Antanarivo, Madagascar, relayed them around the East and Southern Africa and Indian Ocean (ESA-IO) region to raise awareness. “Cybercrime is an emerging threat to maritime security that is beginning to gain the upper hand, and in the ESA-IO region it is creeping up on us,” Lt. Saïd Lavani, Comoran international liaison officer at the RMIFC,…

ADF STAFF Nearly 80% of South African businesses experienced a ransomware attack in 2023, up from just over half the previous year, an indication of the growing threat cybercriminals pose to Africa’s rapidly expanding online presence, according to industry experts. The attackers often are anonymous, but their weapons have names such as BlackCAT and LockBit, and they’re deployed with a single goal: to paralyze a company’s or government’s computer systems until victims pay to have access restored. Ransom demands can range from thousands to millions of dollars. But ransom payments are just one element of recovery costs. Excluding any ransoms…