ADF

The annual African Chiefs of Defense (CHoD) Conference 2023 offered a rare opportunity for military leaders to learn from fellow commanders on the front lines of some of the continent’s toughest battles. “In the militaries and the assignments that we all have, learning is a responsibility of command,” Botswana’s Commander of the Defence Force Lt. Gen. Placid Segokgo told attendees. “It should go vertically from the bottom up and from the top down. It should go horizontally, across to influence at a peer level.” Senior military leaders from 43 African countries convened at the 2023 CHoD Conference in Rome from…

ADF STAFF For most of post-independence history, air forces in Africa were not a priority. Expensive and difficult to maintain, air power was seen as a luxury not useful to the realities and unique threats on the continent. With tight budgets and command structures dominated by ground forces, air forces make up less than 10% of uniformed personnel in many countries.  That is changing. As countries face the threat of violent extremist organizations, light attack aircraft are proving to be a force multiplier that gives the military the upper hand. In battles against insurgent groups that thrive in remote areas,…

ADF STAFF As air chiefs unpacked their bags and got back to work after returning from a continental symposium in Senegal, nature brutally underscored some of the themes and challenges they had discussed there. Tropical Cyclone Freddy, after traveling more than 8,000 kilometers in 34 days, struck Mozambique’s northern Zambezia province on March 11, 2023, eight days after the end of the African Air Chiefs Symposium (AACS) in Dakar. It was the enormous storm’s second landfall. Powerful winds, rain and storm surge caused damage and destruction in Malawi, Mozambique, southeastern Zambia and northeastern Zimbabwe. The record-breaking cyclone first hit land in…

ADF STAFF Four United Nations peacekeeping missions in Africa are working to discredit disinformation campaigns aimed at undermining their credibility. The peacekeeping missions MONUSCO in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), MINUSCA in the Central African Republic (CAR), MINUSMA in Mali and UNMISS in South Sudan are working on the campaigns. The mission in Mali is scheduled to end by the end of 2023. The U.N. notes that the initiatives are a way of fighting back against falsehoods that feed anger and violence. It is monitoring how misinformation, disinformation and hate speech can harm health, security and stability, and hinder…

ADF STAFF A team of international cybersecurity investigators recently identified more than 20,600 suspicious websites tied to an estimated $40 million in financial losses across Africa. Africa Cyber Surge II was a four-month joint operation by Interpol and Afripol that involved 25 countries across the continent. It began in April and by August resulted in the arrests of 14 people running online scams in countries including Cameroon, Mauritius, and Nigeria. The operation followed the first Africa Cyber Surge conducted in 2022. Both operations were a reminder that the rapid spread of the internet and smartphone technology across Africa has happened,…

ADF STAFF In the immediate aftermath of the Niger military coup in late July, Russia’s formal and informal responses were at odds. The Kremlin’s spokesperson called for the immediate release of detained Nigerien President Mohamed Bazoum and urged a return to order. Wagner Group kingpin Yevgeny Prigozhin, however, offered to usher in a new order with his notorious mercenaries. In a voice recording posted to social media platform Telegram, he commended the Niger junta, denounced former colonial power France, and spread disinformation. “After the coup in Burkina Faso in October last year, there were Telegram accounts linked to Wagner that…

ADF STAFF In the early hours of August 29, Gabonese authorities announced that President Ali Bongo had won a disputed election that gave him a controversial third term. Gyldas A. Ofoulhast-Othamot, assistant professor of political science at St. Petersburg College in the United States, said there was plenty of evidence the election process was flawed at best, and rigged at worst. “Immediately after the vote, the internet was cut and a curfew put in place, rarely a sign of a regime confident that it has won at the polls,” he wrote in a September 1 analysis for The Conversation Africa…

ADF STAFF One violent extremist group has nearly doubled the territory it controls in Mali after the ruling junta severed ties with international peacekeepers and empowered brutal Russian mercenaries. The ramifications are roiling northern Mali, where problems began 11 years ago with an Islamist revolt and continue to proliferate in neighboring Burkina Faso to the south. In that country, militants have dominated the north, east and west since a coup removed the civilian government in 2022. Two groups are responsible for most of the violence: the Islamic State of the Greater Sahara (ISGS) and Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM). In…

ADF STAFF Since the outbreak of violence in Sudan in April, the flow of weapons smuggled into the heavily armed country has become a flood. “We used to receive a shipment every three months, but now we’re getting one every two weeks,” weapons dealer Wad al-Daou told Agence France-Presse (AFP). “The demand for weapons has soared so high that we can’t possibly meet it.” Fighting has raged in and around Khartoum since April 15 between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by al-Burhan’s rival general, known as Hemedti.…

ADF STAFF Abu Bakr al-Iraqi, the leader of Islamic State group (IS) in Sudan, secretly finances his operations through businesses in Turkey, according to a recent report by the United Nations. Investigators reported to the U.N. Security Council that al-Iraqi has several businesses in both Turkey and Sudan, including money exchanges and a tourism agency that he launched under fake identities. IS has had a foothold in Sudan since 2019. Al-Iraqi’s operations in Sudan include 100 to 200 IS fighters who are, according to the U.N. report, “seasoned operators, but act as facilitators for logistical movements and transactions.” Al-Iraqi also…