ADF

ADF STAFF Effective communication is key to any successful operation, but it becomes exponentially more difficult when the operation involves multiple countries with a variety of technologies and techniques.  That fact underpinned the Southern African Development Community’s (SADC) communications Exercise Dipuisano in Botswana. “Dipuisano” means “discussions” in Sesotho. As African nations work to respond to crises with regionally organized interventions, the ability to seamlessly communicate is more important than ever. Regional economic communities such as SADC are working to improve communications standards, Brig. Gen. Oreeditse Sheriff Tsamaase of the Botswana Defence Force said during the exercise.  The two-week exercise brought…

U.S. NATIONAL GUARD The U.S. Department of Defense National Guard State Partnership Program (SPP) has added new partner nations in Africa in the 30th year of the program. Malawi and Zambia have joined 17 other African nations in the program. Established in 1993, it now involves more than 45% of the world’s countries paired with the National Guard of every U.S. state and territory. The program develops enduring relationships with partner countries and carries out activities to build capacity, improve compatibility, and improve U.S. access and influence. It also increases the readiness of U.S. and partner forces to meet emerging…

ADF STAFF When the United Nations asked its member countries to intervene in the Korean War in 1950, more than 20 nations sent Soldiers to the fight. Two African nations volunteered to send troops: South Africa and Ethiopia. For Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie, the fight was a crucial one because of his nation’s history. When Italy invaded his country in 1935, Selassie had asked the League of Nations to come to Ethiopia’s aid but received no support. So, when the U.N. asked for help in Korea, he was eager to show his commitment to regional forces. His Soldiers, the Kagnew…

CLUES This land is known for its diversity, density and number of endemic plant species. The property is one of the six floral kingdoms of the world.  It is 0.5% of Africa’s land area but is home to nearly 20% of the continent’s flora. There are an estimated 9,000 plant species in the region, of which 1,736 are threatened and 3,087 are of conservation concern. ANSWER  Cape Floral Region Protected Areas, South Africa

ADF STAFF The Maghreb region’s cold war between Algeria and Morocco continues to add new layers of frost. The latest round of provocations began in early March with the opening of an office in Algiers for the Moroccan Republic of the Rif, a separatist organization reportedly funded by Algeria. Algerian journalist Nasser Jabi suggested it was a response to Morocco’s stated support for the independence of the Kabyle people in Algeria, which itself was in response to Algeria’s hosting and funding of the separatist Sahrawi people of Western Sahara. “We are facing a new level of escalation in Algeria-Morocco relations,”…

ADF STAFF The Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP) has in the last year gained significant territory from a rival group in Mali, increased religious tax collections known as zakat, and expanded recruitment efforts throughout the Sahel. Analysts with the American Enterprise Institute’s Critical Threats Project say the ISSP now operates a hub for foreign fighters from North Africa and Europe, which could lead to increased terror attacks in Europe, North Africa, the Sahel and West Africa. “Foreign fighters are more hardened ideologues that ascribe to transnational Salafi-jihadism and are not as interested in the local aims or grievances that motivate…

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…