TERRORISM SPREADING ACROSS AFRICA AT ALARMING RATE

Speakers Warn Security Council Terrorism Spreading across Africa at Alarming Rate, Call for Greater Support, Enhanced International, Regional Cooperation

SECURITY COUNCIL. 9296TH MEETING (AM). SC/15245. 28 MARCH 2023.

With terrorism and violent extremism spreading across Africa at an alarming rate, counter-efforts must take into account the socioeconomic drivers of terrorist recruitment, challenges posed by climate change and terrorist Internet propaganda, the Security Council heard today, as speakers called for greater support in the fight against the evolving threat, as well as enhanced cooperation among the United Nations, African Union and African subregional organizations.

“No age, no culture, no religion, no nationality and no region are immune” to terrorism, said António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations, voicing particular concern over the situation in Africa. Across the continent, despair, poverty, hunger, lack of basic services, unemployment and unconstitutional changes in government continue to lay fertile ground for the expansion of terrorist groups and the flow of fighters, funds and weapons. In addition, the online world provides a global platform to spread violent ideologies even further. However, “just as terrorism drives people apart, countering it can bring countries together,” he pointed out, spotlighting regional counter-terrorism initiatives — from joint efforts in the Sahel, Lake Chad Basin and Mozambique to the recent Extraordinary Summit of the African Union on terrorism and unconstitutional changes of government. Highlighting United Nations-tailored assistance to African Member States, including prevention, prosecutions and rehabilitation, he also stressed that the fight against terrorism will never succeed if the denial and destruction of human rights is perpetuated. Azali Assoumani, President of Comoros and Chairperson of the African Union, also briefed the 15-nation organ, reporting that terrorism and violent extremism “really exploded in Africa” in recent years.

Filipe Jacinto Nyusi, President of Mozambique and Council President for March, speaking in his national capacity, emphasized that, while terrorism is a global threat, the situation in Africa remains more critical, with the continent representing 48 per cent of terrorism-related deaths and the Sahel region becoming the new epicentre of terrorist attacks. Terrorist groups are trafficking mineral resources and illicit drugs to fund their activities through money-laundering, he noted, calling for more support to be lent to his country and Rwanda, among others, to eradicate terrorism in the region.

Along similar lines, Rose Christiane Raponda, Vice-President of Gabon, describing 2022 as a particularly blood-thirsty year in Africa, said that terrorist acts resulted in 7,816 deaths across all five regions. The Sahel, Lake Chad region and Southern Africa are particularly affected, she said, expressing concern about the ability of Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL), also known as Da’esh, to mobilize resources. As terrorism tests the capacity of States and destabilizes entire regions, the current polarization of the world must not result in the weakening of multilateralism, she said, spotlighting regional initiatives, such as the Group of Five for the Sahel (G5 Sahel) and the Accra initiative.

While terrorism exists everywhere, Alain Berset, President of Switzerland, pointed out that it is manifesting in a particularly alarming way in Africa, with new groups emerging and existing armed groups joining United Nations-designated terrorist organizations. The necessary ingredients for breaking this cycle of violence are well-known — the rule of law, prevention, partnerships, inclusion and respect for international law. In this context, he highlighted an initiative that his country has undertaken together with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) — a handbook to guide the provision of psychosocial assistance to children linked with criminal or armed groups. Vincent Biruta, Minister for Foreign Affairs of Rwanda, said that traditional peacekeeping missions alone have not proved effective enough to address terrorism and violent extremism. Instead, he underlined the importance of robust and pragmatic approaches, tailored to local contexts, spotlighting the bilateral mechanism Rwanda deployed in Mozambique and the Central African Republic at the request of both Governments.

Almost willing to bet it has something to do with BHI.

U.S. Military Evacuates American Embassy in Embattled Sudan

Diplomatic personnel who had been stuck in the midst of a brutal war for more than a week had been evacuated from the capital, Khartoum.

The United States military airlifted embassy officials out of Khartoum, the capital of Sudan, amid continuing violence as rival military leaders battled for control of Africa’s third-largest country, President Biden said late on Saturday. The move came on the eighth day of brutal fighting in the capital and other parts of the country between the army and a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces, whose leaders are vying for supremacy in Sudan. With the airport in the capital badly damaged by shelling, and the country’s air space closed, the evacuation was a daring move. The Pentagon had positioned more troops in recent days in the nearby nation of Djibouti, where the U.S. military has a base, to prepare for a rescue.

ISIS will rise in Turkey soon.

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Ecological Threats and Terrorism across the Sub-Saharan Africa

GermanWatch’s Climate Risk Index of countries impacted by ecological disasters
features countries experiencing significant terrorism-related challenges as well.

The links between the growth in regional terrorism and ecological crisis are unmistakable. How terrorist groups use ecological threats to recruit new members is less clear. According to the latest Global Terrorism Index (GTI) report, IS and its affiliate groups- Islamic State- Khorasan province (ISK), Islamic state- Sinai province (ISS), and Islamic state west Africa (ISWA) remain the deadliest terror groups in 2022. The report indicated that sub-Saharan Africa recorded the largest increase in terrorism deaths which amounts to about 60 percent of all terrorism deaths globally.

The past eight years have been the warmest on record, and 2022 experienced yet more extreme heatwaves, drought, and devastating flooding, which created further resource shortages, shortfalls in agriculture output, more rural to urban migration, and governance issues. These effects are being particularly felt in areas where terrorism is already widespread and presenting significant challenges of its own. Water shortages, for example, effect agriculture output, which is considered a major provider of jobs in many countries significantly impacted by both terrorism and ecological threats. In under-developed nations like those in sub-Saharan Africa, these shortages act as a motivation for individuals to join terrorist groups, who can offer higher wages than those available through legal employment. An example of this is al-Shabab in Somalia.

Ecological threats and terrorism are interconnected in two important and corresponding ways. Firstly, climate change has intensified the drivers and conditions that encourage radicalisation. The ten most impacted countries by terrorism on the Global Terrorism Index has consistently included countries experiencing instability, poverty, weak governance and conflict. Ecological disasters can exacerbate these conditions. Secondly, it has also provided opportunities for terrorist actors to exploit extreme weather events to propagandise, recruit, and raise funds. Terrorist groups such as al-Shabaab in Somalia, Islamic State (IS) and its affiliates, Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), and Jamaat Nusrat Al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM) have exploited extreme weather events by filling the vacuum left by governments unable (or unwilling) to provide humanitarian relief, often in remote locations. For example, in Pakistan, Jamaat-ud-Dawa – the then front organisation of terrorist group Lashkar-e Taiba – offered huge humanitarian relief after the devastating floods in 2010.

Remobilisation of ISIS in the Sub-Saharan Africa region

The deadliest terrorist groups in the world in 2022 are Islamic State (IS) and its affiliates, followed by al-Shabaab, (BLA) and (JNIM). According to Global Terrorism Index 2023, IS remained the deadliest terror group globally for the eighth consecutive year, recording the most attacks and deaths of any group in 2022. The Sahel region in sub-Saharan Africa is now the centre of terrorism, with the Sahel accounting for more terrorism deaths in 2022 than both South Asia and the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) combined. Deaths in the Sahel constituted 43 percent of the global total in 2022, compared to just 1 percent in 2007, which shows a worrying increase. Burkina Faso and Mali, two countries that represent the greater concern, accounted for 73 percent of terrorism deaths in the Sahel in 2022 and 52 percent of all deaths from terrorism in sub-Saharan Africa.

In the Sahel and Niger more specifically, DIIS has reported that the Nigerian army is unable to contain the spread of insurgent groups which gives ISIS more opportunities to win positions. The political situation in the Sahel region intensifies this increase, with six coup attempts since 2021. Yet, despite the intensified political situation, the primary drivers of the increase in terrorism are intimately linked to poor water utilisation, lack of food, ethnic polarisation, strong population growth, external intervention, geopolitical competition, pastoral conflict, the growth of transnational Salafi-Islam ideology, and weak governments. Moreover, several criminal organisations are falsely presenting themselves as Islamic insurgents, which partly accounts for attacks attributed to unknown jihadists, coined as the "Jihadisation of banditry."

Japan pledges to help Mozambique fight "terrorism"

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida pledged Thursday to help Mozambique counter a jihadist insurgency in the north of the country.

Mozambique's northernmost gas-rich province of Cabo Delgado is battling an insurgency led by militants linked to the Islamic State group.

"Japan will help financially in the fight against terrorism," Kishida said at a news conference in the capital Maputo, the latest stop on his Africa tour. "Security is paramount for the operations of Japanese companies in the north of the country," he added. Mozambique has placed high hopes on vast natural gas deposits - the largest discovered south of the Sahara - found in the Muslim-majority northern province in 2010. If all the fields are exploited, Mozambique could become one of the world's top ten gas exporting countries, according to estimates.

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PUTIN’S AFRICAN DREAM

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