United Nations

ADF STAFF As the new year arrives, security experts are closely watching certain conflict hot spots and tracking long-term trends that threaten to boil over. Recurring issues in Africa include demands for free and fair elections, debate…

ADF STAFF Could a new take-at-home pill nearly put an end to COVID-19 deaths? The final analysis of a clinical study by American pharmaceutical company Pfizer showed that its new antiviral therapeutic drug, Paxlovid, prevented almost…

ADF STAFF With unprecedented access to the levers of governmental power, Russia’s recent activities in the Central African Republic (CAR) show its intention to spread influence in a conflict-torn country. CAR has been embroiled in…

ADF STAFF The decades-old dispute over Western Sahara is causing rivals Morocco and Algeria to edge closer to conflict. The disagreement reignited when a cease-fire collapsed in November 2020 between Morocco and the Sahrawi independence…

ADF STAFF The African Union has had a regional peacekeeping mission in Somalia for nearly as long as the country has been plagued by an Islamist extremist insurgency. Established in 2007, the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM)…

ADF STAFF Russia recently admitted it has been blocking United Nations investigations into violations of arms embargoes in four African conflict zones — some involving Russian mercenaries. U.N. diplomats on September 29 said Russia is…

ADF STAFF Amid a recent surge of terrorism in Somalia and the continued lack of adequate state security forces, the need for peacekeepers remains high. Time is running out, however, on the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM),…

ADF STAFF A sharp rise in deadly attacks in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has coincided with a link to ISIS. There are 122 armed groups operating in the densely forested region that borders Uganda to the east,…

ADF STAFF Last year, Margaret Ilomuanya was unable to find her aunt’s hypertension medicine in Lagos, Nigeria’s largest city, for nearly three months. Her experience was common in Africa, where every country suffered some degree of…

Story by ADF STAFF | Photos by AFP/GETTY IMAGES More than 20 African nations have started administering millions of free COVID-19 vaccines through COVAX, the global plan to equitably distribute the shots.  In the initial March 2021…