Increasing Terrorism Activity in Africa: What Are the Implications and Solutions?
The pace of terrorist activities in Africa has significantly increased, accounting for nearly half of the terrorist acts worldwide since the beginning of this year. This situation is due to various factors, including the lack of developmental and intellectual policies and the absence of security coordination among African countries, which has led to the expansion of extremist organizations, particularly ISIS.
Some countries in East Africa are trying to solve the security crisis they face through several security decisions, including Nigeria’s “Safe Corridor Operation”. This operation provides a safe passage for low-risk ordinary elements who wish to leave terrorist groups. These elements defect due to the military pressure on the ISIS organization.
However, extremist organizations are trying to withstand and work hard to prevent these defections. The African Union stated that the number of deaths due to their attacks increased by 27% compared to 2022, even despite these defections. They have started to claim responsibility for attacks in new areas in the states of Edo, Jigawa, Kano, Kogi, Nasarawa, Niger, Ondo, and Taraba.
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Malick Samuel, a researcher at the Regional Office of the Institute for Security Studies for West Africa, the Sahel region, and the Lake Chad Basin, said that to defeat ISIS in East Africa, authorities need to reassess their strategies.
In his media statements, he emphasized, “Government approaches must not tire of encouraging defections, but they should not be satisfied with the disgruntled leaders and elements. Strategies must be developed to deal with the group on different fronts, such as drying up its funding sources, closing some routes used for recruitment and movement, while developing a clear and practical plan to deal with them.”
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He also pointed out that the security vacuum and ethnic and tribal conflicts in the West African region have given an opportunity to extremist organizations, especially ISIS and Al-Qaeda, to intensify their terrorist activities, threatening security and stability in West Africa and the Sahel region.
Countries in the Sahel region of West Africa and several countries located in the east of the continent are witnessing a frightening increase in the activities of terrorist groups that have grown, split, and reformed. The continuous attacks by these groups have destabilized Somalia, Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, and Nigeria.
