Terrorism An Imperative For Economic, Political And...

TERRORISM IN AFRICA; an Imperative for Economic, Political and Military Solutions. The bombings of the United States embassies in Tanzania and Kenya were marked indicators that Africa based terrorist groups were increasing threats to the interests of democratic societies in Africa those of all freedom loving societies the world over. Our policy makers have for long treated the Middle East and Asia as the main battlegrounds in the war on terror. Those regions have been joined by Africa in the aftermath of the Arab revolution which gave rise to regional instability. Could demographic, economic and/or religious forces be fuelling the growth of terrorism in Africa, particularly Nigeria? I would show that the current preferred†¦show more content†¦These groups include the pseudo-Christian ‘Lord’s Resistance Army’ in Uganda, the extremist Islamic ‘Boko Haram’ in Nigeria whose most prominent attacks involved the use of a car bomb to demolish a UN co mpound in 2011 and the kidnapping of hundreds of school girls from a school in northern Nigeria. In the ensuing period the group has killed hundreds of other Nigerians including security personnel as it attempts to impose Sharia law in the mainly Muslim northern part of Nigeria. In Somalia, there is the al-Shabaab militia which has carried out suicide bombings throughout the capital city of Mogadishu and in neighboring countries like Kenya and Uganda. There are the Islamist groups in Mali mostly composed of factions of al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). AQIM conquered and governed a broad swath of northern Mali which it used as a base to plot attacks outside of the country’s border including the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya and on the natural-gas facility in Algeria. Africans have been involved in terror plots in the continental United States an example of which is the militant who tried to bring down a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas Day in 20 09. The scourge of religion based terrorism in Africa has some common threads running through the affected geographic areas. In Nigeria, which is split between a mainly Muslim North and a Christian and