Sahel

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…

ADF STAFF From Ethiopia to Libya to Mali, armed drones have become an increasingly important part of the battlefield arsenal. The rapid rise of drones powered by artificial intelligence (AI) is raising concerns among experts about how they…

ADF STAFF July 26 marked one year since Niger’s military overthrew the country’s democratically elected government. At the time, junta leaders promised to improve security and the economy, issues Nigeriens continue to struggle with today.…

ADF STAFF It’s supposed to be simple. A doctor prescribes medicine — an antibiotic for an infection or perhaps an antimalarial — and a trusted pharmacist dispenses the drug to the patient. The patient trusts the product and takes it as…