West Africa

ADF STAFF Africa loses about 100,000 tons of fish every year to illegal unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. A new report by the Financial Transparency Coalition (FTC) puts a price tag on the continent’s illegally caught fish at…

ADF STAFF From the coasts of Africa to South America, around the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific, China’s distant-water fleet (DWF) is steadily decimating fish stocks worldwide. China’s bottom trawl fleet catches an estimated…

ADF STAFF With Ebola cases continuing to rise in Uganda, health officials are looking to the lessons learned from the 2014-16 West Africa outbreak to guide their strategy. Mosoka Fallah, program manager for saving lives and…

ADF STAFF One way to curb illegal fishing might be to fine flag states for what their ships do thousands of kilometers away. A new report suggests that coastal states should consider going after flag states in court for a vessel’s…

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 Dozens of suspected human trafficking victims were rescued from two industrial fishing vessels in Namibia in early September. Of the 60 people rescued from MV Shang Fu and the Nata 2 in Walvis Bay, most are from the…

ADF STAFF African nations lose an estimated $10 billion annually to illegal fishing, which also drives food insecurity across the continent. To combat the issue, maritime security experts have long called for greater transparency in…

ADF STAFF After the kidnapping of 276 schoolgirls in Nigeria’s Borno State in 2014, the then-leader of Boko Haram took to social media to celebrate the act and to post grainy video of the hostages. Since then, Boko Haram and other…

ADF STAFF Since gaining independence in 1974, Guinea-Bissau has experienced at least nine different coup attempts. The most recent plot, in February, shared similarities with others in that it involved members of the military who are…

ADF STAFF A large industrial fishing vessel casts its massive net off the coast off Saint-Louis, Senegal. The net, which looks like a halo atop the water, can catch more fish in a week than an artisanal canoe can catch in a year. There…