Togo

ADF STAFF A time-worn military adage says: “Amateurs talk strategy; professionals talk logistics.” Experienced leaders know that without solid logistics, any military plan is destined to fail. That philosophy was at the heart of the 2024…

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 Once among the world’s hotspots for piracy and trafficking, the Gulf of Guinea still presents a security challenge for the Economic Community of West African States. The West African regional bloc, also known as ECOWAS, includes…

ADF STAFF Violent extremist organizations from northern Benin and Burkina Faso are increasingly targeting northern Togo as conflicts from the Sahel spill into coastal countries. Four people on a tricycle in the north-central town of…

ADF STAFF Border regions tend to be places of possibility and peril. They are where cultures meet. Where trade –– both legal and illegal –– thrives. Where journeys begin or end. Because they often are far from national capitals,…

ADF STAFF Terrorism-related deaths across Africa jumped in 2023, with most of the violence in a handful of countries while the rest of the continent saw terrorism deaths decline. Overall, terrorism-related deaths in Africa grew 20% in a…

ADF STAFF Deep in Benin’s Pendjari National Park, a former luxury resort has become a military base. There, Soldiers are tracking the movements of extremists coming and going from neighboring Burkina Faso in an effort to stop a surge in…

ADF STAFF Kibsa Ouedraogo is chief of Noaka, a community in north-central Burkina Faso that is surrounded by artisanal gold mines that have become magnets for terrorists. “The terrorists hear that this site or that one is thriving with…

ADF STAFF New research shows that Burkina Faso’s security situation has worsened dramatically one year after the first of its two military coups. Since the coups that brought Capt. Ibrahim Traoré to power in October 2022, deaths from…

ADF STAFF Shipowners operating in the Gulf of Guinea received a piracy alert in late June after a Swiss bulk carrier vessel was boarded and some of its crew injured during a pirate attack off Conakry, Guinea. Four criminals with…