As the Middle East is once again consumed by wars of terrorist aggression, Africa is also experiencing a rise in violence. Despite the region receiving billions in US foreign aid annually, groups affiliated with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State have gained ground across the continent.
By 2023, the Sahel region—a broad swath of sub-Saharan land stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Indian Ocean—accounts for 43% of all global deaths caused by terrorism. That's a 7% increase from last year, with no signs of slowing down.
All this chaos has helped American adversaries like China and Russia gain stronger footholds on the African continent — a continent rich in natural resources critical to U.S. trade and national security, but a sanctuary for terrorists seeking to attack the country and its allies. It is also a place where people do not deserve terrorism, violence and authoritarian dictators. However, US influence in the region has been declining since the Biden administration began and implemented an extremely weak Africa strategy.
Formed as a faction of Boko Haram — the terrorist group made infamous by the kidnapping of 276 Nigerian girls in 2014 (of which 98 remain in captivity) — the Islamic State of West Africa Province is active in northeastern Nigeria and the neighboring area of Lake Chad. With an estimated strength of 5,000 fighters, the Islamic State attacks anyone who opposes its extremist Salafist interpretation of Islam, while financing itself through kidnappings and extortion of the local population.
To the west is the Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin, an al-Qaeda-aligned group active in Mali, Niger, Togo, Benin and Burkina Faso. The group focuses its attacks on security forces and political figures. In 2019, the terrorist group attacked a United Nations base in Mali, killing 10 peacekeepers and injuring 25 others.
The US State Department has designated both Boko Haram and Jama'at Nasr al-Islam wal-Muslimin as foreign terrorist organizations.
Central Africa is no exception. In countries such as the Central African Republic, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Uganda and Rwanda, Islamic State-affiliated groups such as the “Allied Democratic Forces” threaten security forces, UN peacekeepers and civilians.
In the Horn of Africa, the terrorist group Al-Shabaab continues to operate in Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia and Mogadishu. Somalia's federal government has struggled to contain the group, which now controls large swathes of land. Al-Shabaab gained fame for its notorious attack on a shopping mall in Kenya in 2013, which killed 60 people. Their goal is to establish a radical Islamic caliphate in the region.
After President Barack Obama overthrew former Libyan strongman Muammar al-Gaddafi in 2011, the country's massive arsenal of weapons and fighters poured into the Sahel region, especially Mali and Niger, and proved to be an asset to regional terrorist groups. Endemic political instability and conflict ensued, leading to humanitarian crises, economic contraction and large flows of emigrants fleeing north to Europe.
Groups affiliated with al-Qaeda and the Islamic State are both the cause of and take advantage of the chaos. They recruit unemployed local youth and spread their extremist ideologies beyond Africa.
Since January 2020, there have been 13 coup attempts in Africa — six successful — reflecting growing global instability since Joe Biden became president and his administration chose to focus on promoting climate, gender and racial ideologies abroad.
“The reversal of democratic gains runs parallel to the insecurity that West Africa and the Sahel have been facing for some time,” said Omar Touray, president of the Economic Community of West African States.
Meanwhile, regional instability, dictatorship and corruption in countries with an abundance of natural resources have attracted the attention of global malign powers. Under the guise of “counterterrorism,” Russia's paramilitary Wagner Group props up authoritarian regimes with “security advisors” and security forces who fight these terrorist groups in exchange for lucrative mining licenses, especially gold mines.
“It was just supposed to be some weapons and instructors, but when the Russians arrived, they saw the state of chaos our country is in and they thought they could also do business, set up companies, buy raw materials, explore mines… They came. They saw They took advantage,” said Cardinal Dieudonné Nzapalainga, Metropolitan Archbishop of Bangui, Central African Republic.
With terrorist-sponsored violence plaguing much of Africa, Western companies are reluctant to invest there, providing communist China with a clear path to acting as the continent's banker. China's New Silk Road, Beijing's trillion-dollar infrastructure-building program to oust the United States as the global superpower, gives access to Africa's natural resources, including half of the world's gold and 90% of the world's cobalt , an essential component of lithium-ion batteries.
In Djibouti, China has built its first overseas military base on one of the world's most strategic shipping lanes, providing access to shipping lanes connecting the Mediterranean Sea to the Indian Ocean via the Suez Canal.
While China's influence grows, U.S. influence in the region has waned since the Biden administration issued its much-publicized Africa strategy — a strategy that prioritizes an ideological agenda divorced from Africa's economic needs and the national security interests of the United States. .
Terrorism in Africa is a complex and multifaceted challenge. Certainly, more investment in education, infrastructure and job-generating industries would help address the related social, political and economic grievances of the civilian population that are constantly exploited by terrorists. However, the West's failure to effectively help Africans defeat these terrorist groups makes economic development and social progress almost impossible.
To reverse course, the American government needs to adopt a new strategy for Africa that prioritizes robust security assistance over progressive ideology, more commercial diplomacy to counter the penetration of China and other malign actors on the continent, and a of foreign aid more aligned with U.S. national security outcomes.
©2024 The Daily Signal. Published with permission. Original in English.
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