Sahel

ADF STAFF Northern Ghana has emerged as a logistical base from which violent extremist organizations from Burkina Faso launch attacks into other areas as they try to expand farther into West Africa. Terrorists linked to al-Qaida and the…

ADF STAFF The TikTok video spread like an out-of-control fire in October. Dramatic music swelled in the background while the video frantically jumped from clips of security forces in action to police vehicles mobilizing with flashing…

ADF STAFF The Sahel region has emerged as a new drug trafficking epicenter in recent years. According to a United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) report, authorities seized 41 kilograms of cocaine in 2021. The number spiked…

ADF STAFF By the time Burkina Faso’s health ministry declared an epidemic of dengue fever on October 18, 2023, there already were thousands of cases and hundreds of deaths. The World Health Organization (WHO) said it was the West African…

ADF STAFF Disinformation campaigns seeking to manipulate African information systems have increased nearly fourfold since 2022. That is according to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS), which linked disinformation campaigns…

ADF STAFF The number of violent events involving extremist groups in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger has nearly doubled since 2021. That is according to a Reuters review of data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data crisis…

ADF STAFF A new Russian news service is drawing criticism for spreading misleading and harmful information in Africa. The African Initiative is an online platform with deep ties to the notorious Russian mercenary outfit formerly known as…

ADF STAFF Mali’s military junta has repeatedly pledged to restore security to the country after using the terror threat as justification for coups in 2020 and 2021. Instead, the violence has gotten worse. Last year, Mali recorded a…

ADF STAFF Increasing violence in Togo by extremists has stoked fears that neighboring Ghana might be the next coastal West African country in the terrorist groups’ crosshairs. The Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) militant…

ADF STAFF United Nations Deputy Secretary-General Amina Mohammed was among the many speakers who delivered stark assessments on extremist violence in Africa at a counterterrorism summit earlier this year in Abuja, Nigeria. “The situation…