Africa Defense Forum - Africa Defense Forum

ADF STAFF Shipowners operating in the Gulf of Guinea received a piracy alert in June 2023 after pirates attacked a Swiss bulk carrier vessel and injured some of its crew off Conakry, Guinea. Four criminals with weapons boarded the…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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,…

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.…

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…

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…

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…