Network on Intelligence and Security Practices in African Countries

Background

Population: 30 Million

Ruling party: Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA)

Military Expenditure: 2.95% of GDP (2016)

After gaining independence from Portugal in 1975, Angola was plunged into a 27-year civil war. The conflict between the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) and the insurgent group National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA), is thought to have claimed over one million lives. In 2002, following the death of UNITA leader Jonas Savimbi, the civil war ended, securing the MPLA’s and its leader Jose Eduardo Dos Santos’ hold on government.

Since 2002, the power of the presidency in has increased dramatically, with Angola’s entire security apparatus beholden to the executive office. Intelligence agencies in particular have been accused of serving the president’s political, business and private interests. The State Intelligence and Security Service (SINSE), for example, has a reputation for harassing individuals suspected of fomenting discontent within the MPLA. Similarly, the Military Intelligence and Security Service (SISM) is reported to have acted to protect the President’s foreign business interests in the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia.

List of Intelligence Agencies 

Sources:

Central Intelligence Agency. “Angola” In The world factbook. (2019) Retrieved from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ao.html

Pateman, Roy. "Intelligence agencies in Africa: a preliminary assessment." The Journal of Modern African Studies 30, no. 4 (1992): 569-585.

Roque, Paula Cristina. "Angola: parallel governments, oil and neopatrimonial system reproduction." (2011).

Background

Population: 2.2 Million

Ruling Party: Botswana Democratic Party

Military expenditure: 3.37% of GDP (2016)

Botswana’s early intelligence networks were born out of the British Special Branch, which gathered domestic intelligence under colonial occupation. SB’s primary function was to conduct domestic intelligence gathering, principally for purposes of policing and prosecution of criminals. Following independence in 1966, the Special Branch structure was maintained as the only intelligence body under successive Botswanan government until, in 1977, the creation of the new Botswanan Defense Force (BDF) saw the birth of Botswanan military intelligence. BDF intelligence units were tasked with conducting operations relating to external security threats, primarily targeting neighboring nations such as apartheid South Africa, who were employing aggravation and harassment tactics against Botswanan military personnel along the southern border.

Special branch continued functioning alongside BDF, focusing on domestic, nonmilitary and policing operations, until 1998 when the Security Intelligence Services (SIS) were established. The SIS was used for domestic policing operations in much the same way as the SB, it was in essence a change in name only. As the geo-political landscape began to change in the late 1990s, and after the events of September 11th 2001, Botswana’s international partners became increasingly unwilling to share information with the SIS for fear that it would be utilized for prosecution and policing purposes. Consequently, senior government mandarins began plans to reform and restructure the intelligence structure.

After persistent opposition, primarily from senior police officers, the “Intelligence and security service bill” was passed under President Ian Khama in 2008. The bill sanctioned the creation of a new agency, The Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services (DISS) whose mandate included internal and external intelligence operations, counterespionage and SIGINT. The DISS was controversial from its conception, as control of operations was assigned exclusively to the executive/president. Since 2009, a series of execution style killings have been attributed to the DISS, prompting suggestions that the agency is being used to target political opposition to the president. More recently, DISS personnel have been embroiled in controversies regarding press censorship after reports claimed agents had harassed journalists investigating corruptions allegations against President Khama, threatening them with extreme violence and imprisonment.

List of Intellience Agencies 

Sources:

Central Intelligence Agency. “Botswana” In The world factbook. (2019) Retrieved from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/bc.html

Republic of Botswana, Intelligence and Security Service Bill (Government Gazette Extraordinary, 2006).

Background

Population: 19 Million

Ruling Party: Peoples Movement for progress

Military expenditure: 1.23% of GDP (2016)

List of Intelligence Agencies 

Sources:

Central Intelligence Agency. “Burkina Faso” In The world factbook. (2019) Retrieved from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/uv.html

Background

Population: 11.8 Million

Ruling Party: Defense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy

Military expenditure: 2.21% of GDP

In 1962 Burundi gained its independence from Belgium. Over the next forty years the country experienced multiple forceful regime changes, assassinations and political violence. In 2005, following the end of a decade of civil war, the National Council for the Dense of Democracy-Forces for the Defense of Democracy (CNDD-FDD) were elected into office under the leadership of Pierre Nkurunziza. The following year the CNDD-FDD passed legislation establishing the Service National de Rensiegnement (SNR).

The SNR operates entirely beyond the law, often employing torture, murder and illegal imprisonment to suppress political opposition. The SNR answers directly to the President, and without oversight from other government bodies. Human rights organizations have, for many years, implored Burundi’s government to stop SNR domestic operations and charge the SNR employees responsible for human rights abuses.

List of Intelligence Agencies

Sources: 

Central Intelligence Agency. “Burundi” In The world factbook. (2019) Retrieved from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/by.html

Africa, Sandy, and Johnny Kwadjo. "Changing intelligence dynamics in Africa." Univ of Birmingham, (2009).

Ruteere, Mutuma. "Governing Security from Below: Community-Led Security Mechanisms in Urban East Africa." The African Review 44, no. 1 (2017): 1-26.

Thom, William G. "African wars: A defense intelligence perspective." African Historical Review, 44:1 (2011): 145-146

Background

Population: 24 Million

Ruling Party: Cameroon People's Democratic Movement

Military expenditure: 1.6% of GDP (2016)

Shortly after Cameroon gained its independence in 1957, the Service des Etudes et de la Documentation (SEDOC) was established. SEDOC identified and reported on dissidents and political opposition to the presidency. This also involved a rigorous program of press censorship entailing the detention and summary trial of creators or distributors of anti-government propaganda.

For many years Cameroon operated under a one-party system that demanded the SEDOC continue to round up and detain enemies of the government, often handing prisoners over to the Brigades Mixtes Mobiles (BMM), infamous for their use of torture to extract confessions.

List of Intelligence Agencies

Sources:

Central Intelligence Agency. “Cameroon” In The world factbook. (2019) Retrieved from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gh.html

Background

Population: 15.8 Million

Ruling Party: Patriotic Salvation Movement

Military Expenidture: 2.79% of GDP (2016)

After gaining independence from France in 1960, Chad began a 30-year civil war punctuated by invasion from Colonel Ghaddafi’s Libyan Armed forces and intervention by proxy groups operating on behalf of aggressors in Sudan. After a brief period of peace in the 1990s Chad’s unresolved political and economic instability flared up and war broke out again in 1998.

Very little is known about the history of Chad’s intelligence operations. However, it is generally agreed that Hissène Habré, Chad’s authoritarian ruler from 1982 to 1990, established extensive domestic surveillance networks. There is also likely to have been unofficial, transitory intelligence networks created in the south of the country, where fighting during the civil war was particularly fierce. 

Chad’s modern intelligence network is likely to have been founded by President Idriss Deby in the early nineties after he successfully ousted Hissène Habré in 1990, although this is difficult to confirm.

List of Intelligence Agencies 

Sources:

Central Intelligence Agency. “Chad” In The world factbook. (2019) Retrieved from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cd.html

Miles, William FS. "Tragic Tradeoffs: Democracy and Security in Chad." Journal of Modern African Studies (1995): 53-65.

Background

Population: 85 Million

Ruling party: Christian Democratic Party

Military Expenditure: 1.34% of GDP (2016)

After independence in 1960, the Congolese government established a series of small police units tasked with maintaining order and state security. The first of these, Sûreté Nationale, was replaced by the National documentation Center in 1969, which was subsequently reorganized on numerous occasions by President Mobutu.

The National Service for Intelligence and Protection (SNIP) was established in 1990 to perform tasks relating to external and internal intelligence operations. The SNIP was not subject to any authority other than the president with whom it communicated directly. SNIP operated without legal restriction to suppress political opposition to Mobutu in both the Congo and abroad, monitoring and infiltrating exiled anti-Mobutu groups in Africa and Europe. It is likely that Mobutu had many more unofficial intelligence networks used to spy on political opposition within the DRC state structures and military.

Today, the National Intelligence Agency (ANR) is the DRC’s primary intelligence body, responsible for both internal and external intelligence operations and security.

Sources:

Africa, Sandy, and Johnny Kwadjo. "Changing intelligence dynamics in Africa." Univ of Birmingham, (2009).

Cawthra, Gavin, and Robin Luckham, eds. "Governing insecurity: Democratic control of military and security establishments in transitional democracies." Vol. 1. Zed Books, (2003).

Central Intelligence Agency. “CONGO, DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF THE” In The world factbook. (2019) Retrieved from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/cg.html

Thom, William G. "African wars: A defense intelligence perspective."  African Historical Review, 44:1 (2011): 145-146

Background

Population: 105 million

Ruling Party: Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front

Military Expenditure: 0.67% of GDP (2016)

Ethiopia’s modern intelligence landscape has its routes in institutions formulated under the communist regimes of the late 1970’s and 1980’s. After the deposition of Haile Selassie on the 12 September 1974, the Leninist military dictatorship that replaced him, “the Derg”, began establishing intelligence networks in reaction to external military threats on its boarder, predominantly from Sudan and Somalia, and internal insurgent and dissident groups tied to the Eritrean independence movement.

The Public Security Organization (PSO) was established in 1978 with guidance and training from the East German State Security Service (STASI). The PSO was responsible for both external and internal intelligence gathering, counterintelligence actions, surveillance and direct intervention. In part, this took the form of developing an elaborate network of civilian informants both within and beyond Ethiopia’s boarders.

Running in parallel to the PSO was the Military Intelligence Department (MID), responsible for analyzing and mitigating foreign military against Ethiopia and its’ allies. Much of the MID’s action concerned aggressions by Sudan and Somalia, culminating in the Ogaden war in 1978 in which Ethiopia’s territorial integrity was only maintained by a significant injection of military resources and troops by it’s Soviet and Cuban Allies.

The Derg government has been accused of conducting a genocidal campaign of suppression against its opponents in the 1970s known as the “Red Terror” in which an estimated 500,000 people were killed. However, it is unclear to what extent Ethiopian intelligence bodies were party to or directly involved in the violence.

After the withdrawal of Soviet support for the regime in the early nineties, the Leninist regime was replaced by the Ethiopian People's Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) and in 1995 democratic elections were held. Ethiopia’s contemporary agencies are notoriously opaque and discrete. However, the WikiLeaks dump of US Embassy Cables in 2009, provided a brief insight into the work of National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) chief Getachew Assefa in which he describes a relatively unchanged set of geo political and security priorities - such as the monitoring and investigation of actors in Eritrea, Sudan and Somalia.

List of Intelligence Agencies 

Sources: 

Aalen, Lovise. "Ethiopian state support to insurgency in Southern Sudan from 1962 to 1983: local, regional and global connections." Journal of Eastern African Studies 8, no. 4 (2014): 626-641.

Central Intelligence Agency. “Ethiopia” In The world factbook. (2019) Retrieved from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/et.html

Fisher, Jonathan, and David M. Anderson. "Authoritarianism and the securitization of development in Africa." International Affairs 91, no. 1 (2015): 131-151.

Mesfin, Berouk. "Ethiopia's Role and Foreign Policy in the Horn of Africa." International Journal of Ethiopian Studies(2012): 87-113.

Background

Population: 2 Million 

Ruling Party: Gabonese Democratic Party

Military expenditure: 1.43% of GDP (2016)

After gaining independence from France in 1960, Gabon entered a period of political instability including a failed coup d’état n 1964. In 1967 the Centre de Documentation (CEDOC) was created to oversea domestic intelligence and maintain political stability and maintain the emerging single party system under the Gabonese Democratic Party, which lasted until 1990.

CEDOC, now referred to as the Direction Générale de la Documentation et de l'Immigration (DGDI) continues to play an important role in Gabonese politics, maintaining status quo and arresting radicals and dissidents opposed to GDP rule.

List of Intelligence Agencies 

Sources:

Central Intelligence Agency. “Gabon” In The world factbook. (2019) Retrieved from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gb.html

Background

Population: 2 Million

Ruling party: Coalition 2016

Military Expenditure: 1.48% of GDP (2015)

In 1994 the Armed forces Proision Ruling Council (AFPRC) took power in Gambia after a bloodless coup d’état deposed President Dawda Jawara, who had been in power since Gambian independence in 1962. Shortly after, the AFPRC, in an attempt to solidify its position, created the National Intelligence Agency (NIA) to enforce the AFPRC’s political agenda and suppress dissent.

The purpose of NIA today remains disputed. There are those that argue that it continues to function in service of the political agenda of the regime; there have been accusations concerning the fabrication of failed coups in 1997 and 2006 which served as pretexts for legislation facilitating the consolidation of power to the executive. Conversely, other commentators have praised the role the NIA have played in tackling religious extremism and terrorism in Gambia and Senegal.

List of Intelligene Agencies 

Sources:

Central Intelligence Agency. “Gambia, The” In The world factbook. (2019) Retrieved from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ga.html

Dehéz, Dustin. "Security sector reform and intelligence services in sub-Saharan Africa: capturing the whole picture." African Security Review 19, no. 2 (2010): 38-46.

Background

Population: 28 Million

Ruling Party: New Patriotic Party

Military expenditure: 0.4% of GDP (2017)

Ghana is among Africa’s many newly emerging democracies, having endured a checkered history of political upheaval involving a cycle of coups d’état between 1966 and 1981, until its transition to democracy in 1992. This tumultuous period was characterized by human rights abuses, brutalities, and suppressive regimes.

Ghana operates an elaborate intelligence system with both internal and external capabilities. At the apex of the intelligence machinery is the National Security Council (NSC), headed by the President and composed of the Vice President and the ministers with portfolios covering Defence, Interior, Finance, and Foreign Affairs.

The Bureau of National Investigations (BNI), Ghana’s largest intelligence agency, is focused on domestic and counterintelligence, and can legally interrogate and indefinitely detain those deemed a threat to the security of the Ghanaian state. The BNI is a powerful institution, and often exercises overriding authority over Ghana’s other security bodies.

The inclusion of Ghana’s security apparatus in details of Ghana’s constitution in 1992, was intended to create reliable oversight mechanisms and guidelines with which to regulate agencies, previously operating beyond the law. However, ambiguity surrounding definitions of key terms, such as “national security”, has led critics to accuse agencies of using loopholes to avoid oversight bodies and public scrutiny, suggesting the BNI was an “outlaw and lawless organization” and an “ex-constitutional islands”.

List of Intelligence Agencies 

Sources:

Cawthra, Gavin, and Robin Luckham, eds. "Governing insecurity: Democratic control of military and security establishments in transitional democracies." Vol. 1. Zed Books, (2003).

Central Intelligence Agency. “Ghana” In The world factbook. (2019) Retrieved from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/gh.html

Obuobi, Patrick Peprah. "Evaluating Ghana’s Intelligence Oversight Regime." International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence 31, no. 2 (2018): 312-341.

Olonisakin, Funmi. Challenges of security sector governance in West Africa. Edited by Alan Bryden, and Boubacar N'Diaye. Lit, 2008.

Rathbone, Richard. "Police intelligence in Ghana in the late 1940s and 1950s." The Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History 21, no. 3 (1993): 107-128.

Background

Population: 48 Million

Ruling Party: Jubilee Party

Military expenditure: 1.3% of GDP (2016)

The Kenyan National Intelligence Service was born of the “special Branch” police unit created in 1952 during the British administration. From its conception, until Kenyan independence in 1963, special branch played a prominent role in the collection of information on Kenyan political agitators, dissidents and independence advocates.

After independence, special branch activities were increasingly politicized - utilized by individual politicians, at both a national and local level, seeking to consolidate power and silence opposition. In the early stages of President Daniel Moi’s presidency, special branch was linked to a number of human rights abuses including the Garissa and Wagalla massacres in 1980 and 1984.

Increasing democratization of Kenyan politics, following the first multi-party election in 25 years in 1992, and the softening of Moi’s grip on the presidency in the 1990s, fostered a growing public demand for change in Kenya’s intelligence and security services. In 1998 new legislation restructured the special branch, culling over 100 SB officers, and rebranding it as the National Security Intelligence Service (NSIS). The NSIS is tasked with both internal and external intelligence gathering and counterintelligence operations. This broad mandate includes a variety of mission types including counterterrorism operations, economic intelligence and espionage.

List of Intelligence Agencies

Sources:

Bachmann, Jan. "Governmentality and counterterrorism: Appropriating international security projects in Kenya." Journal of Intervention and Statebuilding 6, no. 1 (2012): 41-56.

Fisher, Jonathan. "Mapping ‘Regional Security’in the Greater Horn of Africa: Between National Interests and Regional Cooperation." The author provides details on impacts in the Horn of Africa on (2014): 11-12.

Heather, Randall W. "Intelligence and Counter-insurgency in Kenya, 1952–56." In Modern Counter-Insurgency, pp. 77-105. Routledge, (2017).

Ruteere, Mutuma, and Marie‐Emmanuelle Pommerolle. "Democratizing security or decentralizing repression? The ambiguities of community policing in Kenya." African Affairs 102, no. 409 (2003): 587-604.

Ruteere, Mutuma, and Mikewa Ogada. "Regional Challenge, Local Response: Civil Society and Human Rights in US–Kenya Counter-terrorism Cooperation." Civil Society under Strain. Counter-Terrorism Policy, Civil Society and Aid Post-9/11, eds. Jude Howell and Jeremy Lind. Kumarian Press, Sterling, VA (2010): 209-226.

Ruteere, Mutuma. "Security and human rights in the new constitutional order in Kenya." (2014): 163.

Ruteere, Mutuma. "Governing Security from Below: Community-Led Security Mechanisms in Urban East Africa." The African Review 44, no. 1 (2017): 1-26.

Background

Population: 5 Million

Ruling party: Congress for Democratic Change

Military Expenditure: 0.62% of GDP (2016)

Liberia is renowned for its expansive and bloated security and intelligence apparatus. There are numerous unconfirmed or impermanent agencies that have short life spans and overlapping mandates. However, there are a few well documented institutions that are mainstays of the Liberian security landscape.

The National Security Agency (NSA) was formed by President William Tolbert following the abolishment of the Executive Action Bureau (EAB) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI). Tolbert closed several security bodies, including the EAB and NBI, in an effort to unseat remaining political allegiances to former President William Tubman among security agency officials.

The NSA is tasked with the collection and dissemination of all intelligence relating to the protection of government and people of Liberia. This includes economic intelligence, counter espionage and sabotage in addition to traditional intelligence gathering and analysis. Increasingly, the NSA is tasked with processing and disseminating SIGNIT and information assurance.

The ministry of National security (MNS) is a department of government that coordinates the efforts of the policing and intelligence bodies to provide information and guidance to the President on issues relating to security and intelligence. MNS has a dual function, also being responsible for direct action relating to counterespionage and counterintelligence operations.

Liberia’s more recent history has been dominated by two civil wars in 1989-1997 and 1999 – 2003. During the first Liberian Civil war, much of Liberia’s security apparatus lacked the resources to function effectively. Consequently, the NSA and other bodies were dissolved or intentionally disbanded and are, therefore, notably absent in the long list of government bodies indicted by human rights organizations for war crimes and/or other human rights abuses during both conflicts. However, the NSA has been accused of human rights abuses in peacetime, perhaps most notably the abduction and torture of four foreign journalists in 2000.

List of Intelligence Agencies 

Sources:

Central Intelligence Agency. “Angola” In The world factbook. (2019) Retrieved from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ao.html

Ebo, Adedeji. "The challenges and opportunities of security sector reform in post-conflict Liberia." (2005): 3.

Malan, Mark. "Security-Sector Reform in Liberia." From Civil Strife to Peace Building: Examining Private Sector Involvement in West African Reconstruction (2009): 209.

Background

Population: 203 Million

Ruling Party: All Progressives Congress

Military expenditure: 0.43% of GDP (2016)

Nigeria’s modern security and intelligence apparatus has its origins in the police Special branch (SB) and the Research Department (RD) of the ministry of External Affairs - responsible for domestic and foreign intelligence respectively - in the years following Nigerian independence in 1960.

In 1976, following the failure of either the SB or RD to predict or prevent the abortive military “Dinka coup”, head of state General Olusegun Obasanjo merged SB and RD and created the National Security Organization (NSO). Initially, the NSO, comprised mainly of ex-military officers loyal to the governing military regime, was tasked with suppressing domestic threats and aiding southern African political movements such as the ANC in their fight against apartheid. However, fears surrounding growing domestic political movements, namely student protests in early 1979, culminatd in widespread arrests and unlawful detentions at a secret NSO run prison named “ita-oko”.

Following persistent political pressure, the military regime handed power over to a civilian administration after elections in the fall of 1979. The NSO was restructured, and ostensibly softened its campaign of political oppression. However, opposition groups continued to report incidents of harassment, intimidation and wiretapping. NSO activity continued  until in 1985, following the exposure of the NSO in the “Dikko Affair”, General Babangida seized power and disbanded the agency. Babangida creating three separate agencies in the NSO’s place - The Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), The National Intelligence Agency (NIA) and The State Security Service (SSS).

The SSS is the chief successor of the NSO, tasked with domestic operations and intelligence gathering. Although not as infamous as its predecessor, the SSS has also been accused of attempting to suppress and harass political opposition. Recently, the SSS has been criticized for its failure to prevent terrorist attacks conducted by Islamist groups such as Boko Haram.
In addition to the SSS, the DIA is responsible for providing military intelligence to the Nigerian Armed forces and the Ministry of Defense and the NIA is responsible for external intelligence operations and counterintelligence.

List of Intelligence Agencies

Sources: 

Central Intelligence Agency. “Nigeria” In The world factbook. (2019) Retrieved from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ni.html

Diamond, Larry. "Nigeria update." Foreign Aff. 64 (1985): 326.

Ihonvbere, Julius Omozuanvbo, and Timothy M. Shaw. Illusions of power: Nigeria in transition. Africa World Press, 1998.

Shuaibu, Salisu Salisu, Mohd Afandi Salleh, and Abdullahi Yusuf Shehu. "The impact of Boko Haram insurgency on Nigerian national security." International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences 5, no. 6 (2015): 254-266.

Background

Population: 25 Million

Ruling party: Tiako I Madagasikara 

Military Expenditure: 0.53% of GDP (2017)

Philibert Tsiranana, Madagascar’s first President, created the Force Républicaine de Sécurité to safeguard his own personal security in 1959. Over the following years the FRS developed into a multi-functional policing unit tasked with suppressing political dissenters and public unrest. The FRS were trained by external security forces from North Korea and the GDR.

After taking office in 1975, Didier Ratsiraka created a small political investigation unit known as the Direction Générale de l'Information et de la Documentation, Intérieure et Exterieure (DGIDIE). The DGIDIE was given unlimited powers of arrest and detention. The DGIDIE has been repeatedly accused of extensive human rights violations.

List of Intelligence Agencies 

Sources:

Central Intelligence Agency. “Madagascar” In The world factbook. (2019) Retrieved from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ma.html

Pateman, Roy. "Intelligence agencies in Africa: a preliminary assessment." The Journal of Modern African Studies 30, no. 4 (1992): 569-585.

Background

Population: 27 Million

Ruling party: Mozambique Liberation Front (FREMILO)

Military Expenditure: 0.81% of GDP (2017)

After gaining independence from Portugal in 1975, Mozambique quickly descended into a long a protracted civil war. The Front for the Liberation of Mozambique (FRELIMO), the primary agitator prior to independence, took power and established a one-party state based on its’ Marxist ideology. Shortly after seizing power FRELIMO created the Servicion Segurança Nacional Popular (SNASP) to gather intelligence on political opposition and insurgent groups, namely the anti-communists forces of the Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO). The conflict between the two forces lasted for 15 years during which time SNASP engaged secret policing operations, allegedly committing human rights abuses against RENAMO members and associated sympathizers.

In 1992, after the end of the civil war, the SNASP was replaced by the Serviço de Informações e Segurança do Estado (SSNP) to oversee internal and external intelligence gathering, counterintelligence and counter terrorism.

List of Intelligence Agencies 

Sources:

Central Intelligence Agency. “Mozambique” In The world factbook. (2019) Retrieved from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/mz.html

Thom, William G. "African wars: A defense intelligence perspective."  African Historical Review, 44:1 (2011): 145-146

Background

Population: 12 Million 

Ruling Party: Rwandan Patriotic Front

Military Expenditure: 1.21% of GDP

Rwanda’s post-colonial history has been defined by tensions between its two major ethnic groups, the Hutus and Tutsis. In 1990, the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF), formed from Tutsi’s angered by the oppressive Hutu government, instigated a civil war which led, in 1994, to the state sponsored genocide of the civilian Tutsi population. The killing was brought to an end when the RPF defeated government forces and Hutu militia.

In the weeks after the genocide, Hutu intelligence networks, traditionally employed to enforce political oppression and silence dissent, dissolved or fled the country, fearing reprisals for their role in the killing. The new regime, formed by the RPF, quickly established a new intelligence structure, the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), primarily to monitor dissidents sympathetic to the old regime, and other Hutu’s who had fled to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in the weeks following the genocide.

Today, the NISS monitors external and internal security, with a special interest in immigration – a reflection of problems related to the ongoing conflict in the DRC - and the Hutu militias determined to reinstate Hutu majority rule still operating in the region. The NISS has foreign stations in Eastern Africa, Europe (Belgium) and the United States. A significant part of the NISS foreign activities are still focused on locating perpetrators of the 1994 genocide.

List of Intelligence Agencies  

Sources:

Central Intelligence Agency. “Rwanda” In The world factbook. (2019) Retrieved from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/rw.html

Africa, Sandy, and Johnny Kwadjo. "Changing intelligence dynamics in Africa." Univ of Birmingham, (2009).

Ruteere, Mutuma. "Governing Security from Below: Community-Led Security Mechanisms in Urban East Africa." The African Review 44, no. 1 (2017): 1-26.

Thom, William G. "African wars: A defense intelligence perspective." African Historical Review, 44:1 (2011): 145-146

Background

Population: 11 Million

Ruling party: Democratic Party of Somalia

Military Expenditure: ?

Somalia’s modern intelligence community was formed by former president, Siad Barre, following the coup which saw Somalia become a one party, Marxist Lenninst, state. Barre modeled the National Security Service (NSS) on the KGB with help from Russian actors. The NSS was tasked with monitoring domestic threats to the regime, such as dissidents and political opposition, as well as external operations, often concerning Ethiopia and other hostile actors in the region.

The NSS has been accused of playing a significant role in the Barre’s “clan-based punishment” program and subsequently the Isaaq genocide of 1987-89 in which up to 200,000 people were killed. The NSS was dissolved in 1989 shortly before Barre fled Mogadishu during the Somali civil war.

In 2013 the Somali government officially reinstituted the NSS as the National Intelligence and Security Agency (NISA). The NISA monitors both internal and external intelligence, with an increasing focus on counter terrorism and piracy.

List of Intelligence Agencies 

Sources:

Central Intelligence Agency. “Somalia” In The world factbook. (2019) Retrieved from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/so.html

Fisher, Jonathan. "Mapping ‘Regional Security’in the Greater Horn of Africa: Between National Interests and Regional Cooperation." The author provides details on impacts in the Horn of Africa on (2014): 11-12.

Background

Population: 43 Million

Ruling party: National Congress

Military Expenditure: 2.83% of GDP (2016)

Sudan’s modern intelligence apparatus was born out of Colonel Omar al-Bashir’s political and institutional reforms, introduced after a successful military coup in 1989. Unofficial intelligence networks, operating on behalf of Bashir’s regime, were ratified in 1999 when the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) was recognized as part of National Security Act. The legislation, proposed by the National Congress Party and Al-Bashir, granted almost unlimited powers of arrest, detention and surveillance to the NISS in their efforts to suppress political opposition and insurgency groups.

The NISS is known to have extensive intelligence networks operating in north Africa in the Middle East, perhaps most notably in Iraq where the NISS operated an extremely active agent recruitment program in the years following the second gulf war

An Amnesty international report released in 2010 accused the NISS of a plethora of human rights abuses dating back to the mid-nineteen nineties, including the systematic use of torture, arbitrary detention and execution of political prisoners and dissidents.

In April of 2019, following President Al-Bashir’s abdication and mounting public pressure, the chief of the NISS, Salah Gosh, was stripped of his position by the then de facto president of Sudan, Abdel Fattah Abdelrahman Burhan.

List of Intelligence Agencies 

Sources:

Amnesty International, 2010, 'Agents of Fear: The National Security Service in Sudan', Amnesty International, London

Central Intelligence Agency. “Sudan” In The world factbook. (2019) Retrieved from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/su.html

Fisher, Jonathan. "Mapping ‘Regional Security’in the Greater Horn of Africa: Between National Interests and Regional Cooperation." The author provides details on impacts in the Horn of Africa on (2014): 11-12.

Background

Population: 55 Million

Ruling party: Chama Cha Mapinduzi

Military Expenditure: 1.14% of GDP (2016)

The Tanzanian Intelligence and security service (1996) was created in 1996 as a replacement for the often informal, politically motivated and unratified intelligence gathered by Tanzanian police services. The TISS is responsible for the collection of intelligence relating to external threats, espionage, sabotage and terrorism, and is responsible for advising policy makers on all matters related to security. In order to prevent the TISS becoming an agent of political coercion, it is barred from collecting information or conducting surveillance on any individual participating in “lawful protest or dissent”.

The TISS is known to have co-operated with other African intelligence agencies and the CIA after the 1998 al-Qaeda attacks on US embassies in Dar-es-salaam.

Sources:

Africa, Sandy, and Johnny Kwadjo. "Changing intelligence dynamics in Africa." Univ of Birmingham, (2009).

Central Intelligence Agency. “Tanzania” In The world factbook. (2019) Retrieved from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/tz.html

Fisher, Jonathan. "Mapping ‘Regional Security’in the Greater Horn of Africa: Between National Interests and Regional Cooperation." The author provides details on impacts in the Horn of Africa on (2014): 11-12.

Ruteere, Mutuma. "Governing Security from Below: Community-Led Security Mechanisms in Urban East Africa." The African Review 44, no. 1 (2017): 1-26.

Background

Population: 14 Million

Ruling Party: Zanu PF

Military Expenditure: 2.2% of GDP (2016)

Zimbabwe (then southern Rhodesia) was annexed from British South Africa in 1923. In 1965, the Rhodesian government declared independence from the UK and installed an apartheid regime, denying the democratic and social rights of the black population. In 1979, after a period of intensive guerilla war, rebel groups headed by Robert Mugabe ousted the Rhodesian authorities and created the Zimbabwean state.

Zimbabwe’s intelligence structure was born out of the remnants of the British Federal Intelligence and Security Bureau (FISB) - an analytics unit responsible for managing the efforts of Special Branch operations in Rhodesia and northern parts of South Africa. In 1963, Prime Minister Winston Field dissolved the FISB and created the Central Intelligence Organization (CIO) which was tasked with coordinating external intelligence gathering and analysis, while Special Branch continued to handle internal operations.

When Zimbabwe gained independence in 1980 Mugabe chose to maintain the CIO, increasingly utilizing its resources for internal as well as external operations. Under Mugabe, the CIO has been repeatedly accused of grievous human rights abuses and political intimidation, often involving murder, torture and unlawful indefinite detention. Intimidation tactics are especially common in the weeks leading up to an election, usually taking the form of physical threat and harassment outside voting stations.

The CIO and Zimbabwe’s Military intelligence body, the Military Intelligence Directorate (MID), have repeatedly been accused of attempting to intervene in Zimbabwean domestic politics. The internal war of succession, raging within in the ruling ZANU PF party since the early 1990s, has seen both the CIO and MID champion competing factions within the party, specifically Joice Mujuru (CIO supported) and Emmerson Mnangagwa (MID supported). These interventions have taken the form of concerted surveillance operations, often with a view to discrediting or slandering opponents in order to gain the favor of President Mugabe.

List of Intelligence Agencies 

Sources 

Amnesty International. “Zimbabwe harassment and Intimidation” (2016) Retrieved from: https://www.amnesty.org.uk/press-releases/zimbabwe-harassment-and-intimidation-election-looms

Central Intelligence Agency. “Zimbabwe” In The world factbook. (2019) Retrieved from: https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/zi.html

Blessing-Miles Tendi, State intelligence and the politics of Zimbabwe's presidential succession, African Affairs, Volume 115, Issue 459, April 2016, Pages 203–224