In March, the shura (consultative council) of Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) released an audio recording announcing Abdullah Ibn Umar al-Barnawi (a.k.a. “Ba Idrisa”) as ISWAP’s new leader (Twitter.com/A_Salkida, March 4). [1] Ba Idrisa had formerly been a follower of Muhammed Yusuf, who... MORE

Despite modern Russia’s constrained resources, its foreign policy has long operated on a global scale. And one key area of this worldwide remit is increasingly Africa, where arms sales and security cooperation are again driving the diplomatic outreach. Thus, the past several weeks saw several... MORE

As it lost control of key regions in Iraq and Syria, Islamic State (IS) may have found a foothold in the conflict-ridden Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In April, IS claimed responsibility for two attacks on villages in eastern DRC, a region beset by rebel... MORE

Islamic State Claims Signal Resilience and Shifting Strategy Brian M. Perkins Over the past several weeks, Islamic State (IS) has firmly demonstrated that it has entered the next phase of its global insurgency. The collapse of Baghouz, the last piece of the group’s caliphate to... MORE

A little-known five-year civil war in South Sudan has left up to 400,000 dead and millions more displaced. After the young nation gained its hard-won independence in 2011, only two years of peace followed before latent rivalries between the Dinka and the Nuer (the two... MORE

Veteran opposition politician Yasir Arman called the April 11 military coup in Sudan nothing more than “old wine in old bottles.” Arman suggested it had preserved “the political and economic structures of the old system,” the military-Islamist alliance that has ruled Sudan since an Islamist-backed... MORE

On orders from Russian President Vladimir Putin, his agent Yevgeny Prigozhin—popularly known as “the cook” because of his ownership of a catering company—has inserted “political technologists” in at least 20 African countries. These Russian operatives are meant to ensure the continuation in office of Moscow’s... MORE

Islamic State Fighters Regroup in Iraq, Rebuild Support and Smuggling Networks  Brian M. Perkins The past several weeks has seen a surge in Islamic State (IS) attacks in Iraq as the U.S.-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) attempt to make a final push to eradicate IS... MORE

Ten weeks into massive street protests in Sudan, anger at the three-decade-old regime of President Omar al-Bashir has begun to spread well beyond Khartoum. Unsure of support from the army (supposedly his powerbase), Bashir has unleashed counter-terrorist paramilitaries against the demonstrators. Though the 75-year-old Bashir... MORE

Less noticed but no less important than the reported arrival of Russian mercenaries in Venezuela (see EDM, January 28, 31) has been the influx of Russia Wagner Group “private military contractors” (PMC) in Khartoum to help local security forces shore up the embattled regime of... MORE