By Rogers Atukunda
The rise of Jihadism and its global networks in Africa is costing the continent countless lives, displacing families, and untold suffering, according to security experts.
According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, for more than a decade, the Islamist insurgency in Sub-Saharan Africa has seemed unstoppable with 2022 seeing another uptick in jihadist violence across the continent with fatalities increasing by 48% and violent incidents by 22% compared to the previous year.
The recently concluded Kampala Geopolitics Conference held at Makerere University from October 23-24, 2024, tackled “Jihadism, Global Networks, and the African State: The Cases of Somalia, Nigeria, and Mali”.
According to Dr. Yahye Ali Ibrahim, the Chairman of the Management Institute for National Development (MIND) of Somalia, the Al-Shabaab, a Sunni Islamist military and political organization based in Somalia and active elsewhere in East Africa, joined forces with Al-Qaeda, which escalated the armed conflict in Somalia.
“They ended up recruiting over 10,000 youth, creating a wide movement of Jihadism. Given the growth of power among the Al-Shabaab in Somalia, the conflict has, by extension, affected East African states, who have had to join the Government of Somalia to fight against the Al-Shabaab,” said Dr Yahye.
According to him, the Al-Shabaab has since become resistant to the counter-attacks of the resisting governments. “Recently, the Jihadists claimed over 600 deaths and 800 casualties in one bombing, showing the growth of force in their Jihadist cause.”
He believes the interconnectivity of the world today facilitates the growth of the jihadist agenda. “Islam doesn’t encourage killings, but the Jihadists, being extremists, have chosen to misinterpret the religion to justify their crimes.”
Uganda is part of the African Union Transition Mission in Somalia (ATMIS), formerly the African Union Mission to Somalia (AMISOM), a multinational force formed by the African Union that deployed to Somalia in March 2007 to help the Somali National Security Forces push Al-Shabaab out of much of southern Somalia including most major towns and cities.
Boko Haram
Boko Haram is an Islamist terrorist jihadist organization based in northeastern Nigeria, which is also active in Chad, Niger, northern Cameroon, and Mali.
Lt. Col. Yves Koffo Guitto, the Head of Operations of the Counter Terrorism Operational Intelligence Center (CROAT), said in 2012/13, the Jihadist movement suddenly expanded its activities to the Sahel region, which includes Niger, Chad, Sudan, Eritrea, Mali, Senegal, Mauritania and Burkina Faso.
“In the last three years, we have seen an increase of 250% of Jihadist attacks in the Sahel region. Recently, over 100 attacks happened in Mali near the shared border with Burkina Faso, showing the extent of intrusion of the Jihadist forces in the Sahel region,” explained Lt. Col. Guitto.
He said Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger had decided to withdraw from the regional organization and have put up a force to fight the conflicts.
“The region needs to work together in information sharing to successfully fight against the Jihadism efforts.”
According to Prof. Chukwuma Albert Okoli, a Reader (Associate Professor) in Political Science (Security Governance) at the Federal University of Lafia, Nigeria, the Jihadist agenda is practically an aggravated threat situation that is expanding and evolving.
He cited the tendency of regional expansion as far as the coastal areas of Africa like Mozambique and the tendency of criminal opportunism or terror opportunism.
Expansion
“Boko-Haram emerged as a radical Islamic militant group with the aim of Islamic expansion. However, the death of the Boko-Haram movement created an extremist radical group with a hunger for violence mirroring Jihadist activities,” said Prof. Okoli.
He added: “The Jihadist violence in Western Africa has affected over 11 million people beyond Nigeria, killing 30,000 people, displacing over 2.5 million people and engendering 1.5 million people who have been rendered “critically in need persons”.”
According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, organized violent groups are concentrated in the Sahel, Lake Chad Basin, Somalia, northern Mozambique, and North Kivu province in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC).
The Armed Conflict Survey 2023, says a total of 295 groups operate in Sub-Saharan Africa, the Middle East, and North Africa. Countries neighboring these areas are also impacted by cross-border militant activities, including the use of their territories for recruitment and the smuggling of arms and other illicit goods for revenue-generating purposes. This is the case for Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda in East Africa and Benin, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, and Togo in West Africa.
Way Forward
The report suggests improved quality of governance as a way forward since some jihadist groups try to base their legitimacy on protecting communities from the abuse of the state.
“Across the continent, the ability of the state to project a positive response on the ground, alleviate tensions between communities, and maintain effective and accountable security services is essential to countering insurgencies,” notes the report.
It also cites good governance of the security sector, providing economic support to the population in areas that are at risk of insurgency, and finding an effective balance between providing security, supporting local development, and negotiating with communities to combat jihadist insurgencies.
(Email me at [email protected] or WhatsApp me at 0784873420)
Discussion about this post