The Gambia

ADF STAFF The fishing vessels working African coastal waters use different electronic systems to report their position and avoid collisions with other boats. The systems also provide a way to track vessels that may be engaging in illegal…

ADF STAFF With more than 600 million people online and millions more soon to join them, African nations face growing demand to safeguard cyberspace against hackers, scammers and extremists. Ghana provides a model for how to do that. In…

ADF STAFF There was no gunfire in Banjul, the capital of The Gambia, on December 20, 2022, or the next day when the government announced it had thwarted an attempted coup. What began with rumors ended with an official statement. “Based…

ADF STAFF When he opened a recent meeting of the regional bloc he chairs, Guinea-Bissau President Umaro Sissoco Embaló urged a new response to West Africa’s rash of coups. He was speaking from experience, having escaped a failed coup that…

ADF STAFF The leaders of Mali’s ruling junta recently met with a high-level delegation of West African leaders seeking the release of 46 Côte d’Ivoire Soldiers held in Mali since July, a reflection of Mali’s increasingly strained…

ADF STAFF Since early 2020, Mali has banned the export of rosewood, also known as kosso. Despite that, nearly 150,000 tons of the wood — equal to 220,000 trees — left the country over the last two years, all of it with a single…

ADF STAFF Governments around the world are loosening pandemic-related safety precautions as they report declining COVID-19 infections. But the World Health Organization is warning: Not so fast. The WHO is urging governments to remain…

ADF STAFF The sleepy forests and villages of the Foni Kansala district in The Gambia erupted January 24 as Soldiers chased a truck filled with timber. What followed was the latest spasm of violence in the Casamance region of Senegal,…

ADF STAFF Rampant overfishing, driven by the demands of the global fishmeal and fish oil industry, is leading to food insecurity in West Africa. Artisanal fishermen around the region have angrily denounced the presence of fish oil…

ADF STAFF In the Bamanga forest of northern Cameroon, the sound of axes biting into tree trunks has become a part of everyday life. The axes are often wielded by local poachers or by those crossing the border from Nigeria. Their target:…