West Africa

ADF STAFF The recordings posted online in 2020 claimed to be Ghanaian President Nana Afuko-Addo endorsing several notorious conspiracy theories about the COVID-19 pandemic. There was one problem: The recordings were fake. Afuko-Addo’s…

ADF STAFF African nations that join the Joint Analytical Cell (JAC) to counter illegal fishing can harness Skylight, a maritime monitoring tool that tracks fishing vessels in real time and alerts authorities to suspicious behavior. The…

ADF STAFF As extremists launched murderous assaults on Burkinabe churches in 2019, neighboring Ghana took note. In preceding years, Islamist-backed terrorism and violence, born in Mali and spreading south, had infiltrated Burkina Faso…

ADF STAFF West African governments should consider renegotiating deals with foreign distant-water fishing companies that often offer little benefit to either party, according to a maritime expert at Duke University. Analyzing 2017…

ADF STAFF A collaboration of organizations is bringing more data, technology and analytics to the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Global Fishing Watch, the International Monitoring, Control, and…

ADF STAFF Increasing attacks in northern Togo have targeted civilians and military personnel — yet another sign of Sahel terror groups progressively expanding and threatening coastal West Africa. Togo declared a “state of security…

ADF STAFF Coastal states are sounding the alarm that a lack of resources to patrol waters, combined with limited surveillance of vessel activity, are enabling illegal fishing and leading to food insecurity and the loss of income for…

ADF STAFF After Russia invaded Ukraine in February, prices for food and other goods skyrocketed around the globe. Parts of Africa, where food insecurity already was exacerbated by COVID-19 and severe droughts, were hardest hit. In…

ADF STAFF Security experts have warned for several years that the extremist violence engulfing the Sahel inevitably would spread south to the coast. Four countries along the Gulf of Guinea — Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Togo —…

ADF STAFF Brando Brayend Tewuh, a 29-year-old Indonesian crew member aboard a Chinese fishing vessel, was so tired of being beaten and starved that he and three other crew members jumped from the trawler off the coast of Somalia in…