Violent extremist groups in the Sahel, including Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP), are exploiting Starlink to enhance their operational capabilities.
Criminal actors are not only trafficking Starlink devices but using them to evade law enforcement and sustain illicit economies. Their ability to do so is underpinned by an illicit supply chain that allows them to obtain Starlink devices and bypass nascent regulations on their use. Starlink, a constellation of low Earth orbit satellites, launched its first 60 satellites in 2019. By March 2025, it had more than 7 100 in orbit. It has been celebrated as a solution to help bridge the global digital divide. This could be particularly valuable in parts of rural Africa where factors such as conflict, limited private investment and tenuous state control continue to constrain internet connectivity.
Read more…
Source: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime
Sign up for the Counter-IED Report Newsletters
The latest news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- Nigeria: Troops kill ISWAP top bomb producer
May 16, 2024
The troops of Operation Desert Sanity III and Operation Hadin Kai have successfully eliminated the Islamic State West African Province, ISWAP, top Commander in charge of Vehicle Bomb Improvised Explosive Device, VBEID, Mallam Muhammadu. This followed the continuation of the troops’ major offensive at terrorist enclaves in Sambisa Forest. According to a report, Muhammadu was gunned ...
- ATMIS, Somali troops hone skills to counter threats posed by explosive devices
May 14, 2024
Some 80 African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS) and Somalia security officers on Tuesday began a three-day training focused on detecting and neutralizing improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The United Nations Action Service (UNMAS) is organizing training to increase the security forces of Somalia’s capacity to effectively counter threats posed by IEDs on population centers and ...
- Libyan Mine Action Center to develop country-wide strategy with UNSMIL support
May 14, 2024
The Libyan Mine Action Center announced plans 9 May to develop a country-wide mine action strategy in collaboration with the Geneva International Centre for Humanitarian Demining and the United Nations Support Mission in Libya’s Mine Action Section. According to Fatma Zourrig, Chief of UNSMIL’s Mine Action Section Libya has managed to clean up about 36 percent ...
- Nigeria: Gunmen storm Edo community, kill one, burn cars, houses
May 13, 2024
A gang of armed bandits, who identified themselves as ‘Ijaw Freedom Fighters’, on Sunday night attacked Imariogha community, near Okomu Oil Palm Plantation in Edo State, setting ablaze over eight vehicles. According to the News Agency of Nigeria, the bandits killed one person when they invaded the community, formerly known as AT&P, located in Ovia South ...
- Turkey to train Uganda Peoples’ Defense Forces
May 13, 2024
The Turkish government has recently put the Military Training Cooperation Agreement signed with Uganda on its agenda for approval. The Military Training Cooperation Agreement, signed on September 13, 2022 in Ankara, establishes a legal framework for military training. Activities include exchange programs, joint exercises in various military fields, cooperation between Special Forces commands in the field ...
- Mozambique’s president says northern town of Macomia under Islamist attack
May 10, 2024
Mozambique’s army is fighting Islamist insurgents who launched a major attack on the northern town of Macomia on Friday morning, President Filipe Nyusi said in a televised address. The town is in Cabo Delgado, a gas-rich northern province where Islamic State-linked militants started an insurgency in 2017. Despite a large security response, there has been a ...
- African Union, ICRC Roundtable Seeks Innovative Tech Solutions for Landmine Clearance in Africa
May 9, 2024
The African Union Commission (AUC), in partnership with the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), hosted a roundtable discussion on the ongoing challenges posed by landmines and Explosive Remnants of War (ERW) in Africa as part of the Commemoration of the International Day for Mine Awareness and Assistance in Mine Action. The event highlighted the ...
- Who is behind foreign fighters infiltrating Uganda?
May 9, 2024
Uganda is on high-security alert following the infiltration into the country of foreign fighters believed to be of different nationalities from DR-Congo, Tanzania, Rwanda, Somalia and Zambia. Whereas Ugandan security broadly describes the group as ‘Allied Democratic Forces—ADF,’ its composition suggests it to be a different formation, whose main objectives remain at large. Although the nature ...
- Nigeria: IED explosion kills 7 civilians in Borno
May 6, 2024
Another Improvised Explosive Device, IED, planted along Maiduguri-Dikwa-Gamboru Ngala road has killed seven people, including a telecommunication experts, Mallam Abbashuwa Bulamarwa. The incident took place, weekend, when their vehicles drove on the planted IED in-between Dikwa and Logomani village, about 80kms drive from Maiduguri. Read more… Source: Vanguard News Sign up for our Newsletter Related:
- Uganda: Army, police recover four explosives in Kampala
May 4, 2024
A joint security team on Saturday morning recovered at least four Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs) at Kwata zone, Komamboga Parish, Kawempe Division in Kampala City. Also recovered are mobile phones and magazines of a nine-millimetre pistol, according to the UPDF spokesperson, Brig Gen Felix Kulayigye.“Our intelligence and alertness of the citizens helped detect the IEDs and ...
- Nigeria: Security agencies kill suspected IPOB bomb expert in Imo state
May 4, 2024
Combined security agencies have killed a suspected bomb expert of the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) and its militant wing, Eastern Security Network (ESN) in Nigeria’s South-east. The spokesperson of the Nigerian army, Onyema Nwachukwu, in a statement on Friday said the suspect was killed on Wednesday during a clearance operation by the security agencies at ...
- DR Congo: At least 12 killed in bomb attacks on displacement camps in North Kivu
May 4, 2024
At least 12 people, including children, have been killed in twin bomb blasts that hit two camps for displaced people in eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo, according to government officials, the United Nations and an aid group. Friday’s explosions targeted the camps in Lac Vert and Mugunga, near the city of Goma, the capital of ...
- African Lion 24 features forensics IED simulation in Bizerte, Tunisia
May 3, 2024
Members of the U.S. Forensic Exploitation Department based at the Djibouti Joint Theater Forensic Analysis Center, run a simulated improvised explosive device scenario with the Tunisian Armed Forces during exercise African Lion 2024 (AL24) in Bizerte, Tunisia, May 3, 2024. AL24 marks the 20th anniversary of U.S. Africa Command’s premiere joint exercise led by U.S. Army ...
- Mali forces kill senior figure in Islamic State affiliate
April 30, 2024
Malian forces killed Abu Huzeifa, a leader of Islamic State in West Africa, during a big operation in the north of Menaka. The authorities announced this on state TV on Monday. They confirmed Huzeifa’s death on Sunday after the operation in the Indelimane area but didn’t give more details. Read more… Source: MSN News Sign up for our Newsletter Related:
- Kenya: Death toll in Mandera IED explosion rises to 13
April 29, 2024
At least 13 people were killed after an Improvised Explosive Device went off in Elwak Town, Mandera County. The bomb was laden on a donkey cart when it went off killing the 13, witnesses and police said. This is the second such blast to happen using a donkey cart. But other locals suspect the bomb was ...