Dina Mahmoud (London)
New alarm bells were ringing in the security and military circles in the United States of America, due to increasing indications that extremist organizations active in Africa continue to establish themselves there, and some of them expand their scope of influence to include new regions, especially in the east and west of the continent.
Counter-terrorism experts in Washington warn that the strengthening of these groups, often linked to the terrorist organizations ISIS and Al-Qaeda, in their control in several African countries, in addition to developing their bloody tactics, may herald the possibility of launching deadly cross-continental attacks targeting the United States.
Over the past period, the terrorists of these organizations have been trained on methods that would reduce the risks of being exposed to drone attacks, which have become increasingly used to attack their strongholds. They have also received training on developing their operations aimed at kidnapping Western hostages to obtain ransoms.
This also includes, according to specialists in the affairs of extremist and terrorist groups, how to increase the quantities of weapons and equipment that these groups obtain, to enable them to continue carrying out their criminal attacks, including the manufacture of primitive drones as well.
Western experts agree that the main areas of influence of the bloody organizations currently active on the continent are distributed between Somalia in the Horn of Africa region in the east of this part of the world, and the Sahel region located in the western part of it, where the number of terrorist attacks has increased by approximately 400 percent, in The period between 2012 and 2020.
In Somalia, there are groups that pledge allegiance to Al-Qaeda, led by the Al-Shabaab movement, which is described as the bloodiest organization in Africa, with the most powerful financial resources.
As for the African Coast, groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda are also active and carrying out their bloody activities in countries such as Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso. These groups are seeking to strengthen their presence in Benin and Togo, which have recently escalated their attacks in their territories, after they were content to exploit them as bases to reorganize the ranks of their terrorists, arrange the necessary financing, as well as obtain more weapons.
At the same time, ISIS has sub-terrorist groups affiliated with it in the Sahel and West Africa in general, including ISIS – Greater Sahara Province, amid estimates by experts that these organizations believe that the political and security environment And social groups in Africa are suitable for spreading their extremist ideas and recruiting more elements.
In statements published by the Associated Press, the experts considered that Washington’s escalating concerns about the aggravation of the terrorist threat coming from Africa were among the factors behind the meeting hosted by Botswana in the last week of last June, which included the Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Charles Brown, along with prominent military leaders, represents dozens of African countries.
The meeting aimed to discuss the security challenges facing these countries, and how to ensure their safety and security, especially after the United States was forced to withdraw its forces from more than one African country, such as Niger and Chad, against the backdrop of political fluctuations experienced by those countries, which reduced the ability of American forces to obtain Intelligence information, which gives it the opportunity to assess the capabilities of terrorist organizations on the continent and their threat more accurately.
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