ADF

ADF STAFF Civilians in the Sahel’s tri-border region are caught in the crosshairs of violence perpetrated by rival terrorist groups. Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), which is affiliated with al-Qaida, and the Islamic State group’s Sahel Province (ISSP), also are targeting security forces and humanitarian workers in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Violence targeting civilians increased by 38% in Mali in 2023, mostly due to JNIM operations. Overall, “political violence events in Mali and its neighbors Burkina Faso and Niger have increased by 46% since 2021,” according to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED). Military coups in…

ADF STAFF As Sudan’s Rapid Support Forces took control of the West Darfur capital of El Geneina last summer, a group of men entered the home of one woman and held her at gunpoint. “They said, ‘Are you going to take off your clothes, or what?’” the unidentified 25-year-old Masalit woman told Reuters recently. When she refused, the men threatened to kill her brothers. “At that point, I surrendered,” she said during an interview in a refugee camp in Adré Chad. According to Sudanese advocacy groups and the United Nations, hundreds of women have reported being raped or sexually assaulted…

ADF STAFF Thirty years after its founding, the South African National Defence Force (SANDF) finds its historic role as a peacekeeping group on the continent increasingly limited by financial constraints that may force leaders to rethink their mission. With 70,000 service members, about half of them in the land forces, the SANDF ranks among Africa’s largest militaries. Since the force was reconstituted at the end of the apartheid era, South Africa’s political leaders have called upon it for an array of assignments, from international training and peacekeeping missions to domestic law-and-order activities. Those missions continue with a budget that has…

ADF STAFF Cameroon’s long-running rebellion by its English-speaking minority has spilled across its western border into remote areas of Nigeria’s Cross River state, raising concerns among some observers about the potential for the conflict to feed instability across the region. Since the rebellion by the Ambazonia secessionist movement began in 2017, more than 6,000 civilians have died and 760,000 people have been uprooted across oil-rich western Cameroon. At least 70,000 of them have crossed the lightly patrolled border with Nigeria, seeking refuge in border communities such as Belegete, which hosts the largest number of displaced Cameroonian citizens. Ambazonian rebels are…

ADF STAFF Hawa left her Burkina Faso home due to terrorist attacks five years ago and went to a town in the nation’s Sahel region. There, she depended on humanitarian aid to feed her family and picked vegetation from the bush to sell and eat. Although Burkina Faso’s ruling military junta led by Capt. Ibrahim Traoré vowed to tackle terrorism when it took power in September 2022, extremist organizations in dozens of rural towns and villages have imposed blockades that make it difficult for humanitarian organizations to deliver aid. Now, Hawa, a mother of six, is one of about 500,000…

ADF STAFF A new report shows disinformation is having a major impact on the lives of Africans, as digital campaigns are weakening stability, security and freedom. Russia stands out as the chief source of disinformation in Africa and is well-known for aggressively using social media and publishing fake news to gain influence. It is sponsoring 80 documented campaigns in more than 22 countries, accounting for nearly 40% of all disinformation campaigns in Africa. The figures come from a new study by the Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS), which documented 189 disinformation campaigns on the continent — nearly quadruple the…

ADF STAFF One quarter of all deaths related to terrorism globally in 2023 occurred in Burkina Faso making it the most severely impacted country in the world. Nearly 2,000 people were killed in 258 terror incidents, a rise of 68 percent from the previous year, according to the 2024 Global Terrorism Index (GTI). “Deaths from terrorism have increased successively each year since 2014,” the authors of the GTI wrote. “Given the successive years of escalating violence in Burkina Faso and the uncertain political situation the country is likely to experience further increases in terrorism.” Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), which…

ADF STAFF African security officials are joining the global effort to end the flow of illicit small arms and light weapons that drive so much of the violence plaguing nations across the continent. During gatherings in Nairobi, Kenya, and Lomé, Togo, security chiefs helped lay the foundation for an international strategy to control the movement of small arms and light weapons (SALW) to reduce their availability. “The illicit trade in small arms knows no borders and respects no laws, making it imperative for us to strengthen our collaborative efforts at both regional and international levels,” Kenya’s Interior Principal Secretary Raymond…

ADF STAFF In early March, the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) retook sections of Omdurman from the Rapid Support Forces (RSF). The reconquest marked one of the SAF’s few victories after months of humiliating retreats and territorial losses since fighting broke out nearly a year ago. Once seen as a force to be reckoned with, Sudan’s army has spent 11 months struggling — and often failing — to maintain control over vital national territory. This includes losing much of the Darfur region, most of the capital region and large swaths of the agricultural El Gezira region. When the war began, the…

ADF STAFF Nine crew members aboard a chemical tanker headed from Côte d’Ivoire to Cameroon were abducted by pirates in January as the ship sailed near Equatorial Guinea. Piracy is one of many sea crimes prevalent in the Gulf of Guinea, and observers say emerging technologies can benefit countries struggling to protect their waters. Nigeria, for example, once was designated as a piracy hot spot by the International Maritime Bureau (IMB). However, the country’s investment in technology-based infrastructure has helped it address piracy, illegal fishing, oil theft, drug and weapons trafficking, and other crimes. “The Nigerian Navy has continuously acquired new…