Author: James Okafor
James Okafor
James Okafor is a defence and security analyst with over 14 years of experience covering sub-Saharan Africa's military affairs, peacekeeping operations, and defence procurement. A former strategic communications consultant for regional security bodies, he has reported from conflict zones across the Sahel, the Horn of Africa, and the Great Lakes region. His analysis has been cited by think tanks including the African Centre for the Study of the United States (ACSUS) and various NATO-affiliated research institutions. James holds an MA in International Security Studies from the University of Pretoria and a BA in Political Science from the University of Lagos. He specialises in drone warfare, naval modernisation, arms trade dynamics, and the growing role of private military contractors on the African continent.
Boko Haram’s first female suicide bomber killed herself and a Nigerian Soldier in 2014 at a barracks in Gombe State. Since then, Boko Haram has deployed…
Amid a spate of recent arrests on charges of human trafficking, police and government officials in Zimbabwe are investigating an elaborate recruitment network responsible for funneling…
Analysts often say that creating economic growth is a key counterterrorism tool in regions where terrorists recruit new members. Across West Africa, for example, coastal countries’…
As the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo grew to become one of the deadliest on record, authorities in neighboring Uganda used a…
China has refused to sign an agreement meant to improve efforts to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Beijing commands the world’s largest distant-water fishing…
Recent terrorist attacks by Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin and Islamic State Sahel Province in western Niger reveal the rapidly deteriorating security situation in the country’s western…
After years of losses to the joint military forces of the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, the Islamic State Central African Province (ISCAP) is…
A northern region of Cameroon in the Lake Chad Basin has become a focal point of pressure by terrorists trying to deepen control, a study shows.…
While piracy is down in the Gulf of Guinea, the region remains the world’s hot spot for illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, and is frequently…
The Nigerian government’s Terrorist Prevention Act reclassified violent bandit groups, criminal gangs and kidnapping syndicates as terrorists in 2022. The goal was to allow state and…