Africa’s perennial struggle for survival, amidst a very harsh and unfavourable world economic order, is blinding its leaders to the mortal threat posed to its security by foreign terror organisations, sometimes working in alliance with the home-grown ones. Gradually, terror attacks, the types hitherto alien to African soil, are rearing their ugly heads in unusual places, calling for more serious attention by the governments than they are currently willing to spare.
On January 15, the al-Qaeda terror group struck its first major blow in the West African state of Burkina Faso, seizing more than 100 guests in a luxury hotel frequented by foreigners, especially Western tourists. By the time the dust settled at the Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou the following day, 22 people had been killed, not counting the invading terrorists themselves, while 126 others were rescued, some with serious injuries. According to reports, it was the fifth time in the first two weeks of this year that the resurgent group would ambush people in its deadly assaults across countries such as Turkey, Egypt, Indonesia and Iraq.
The Ouagadougou attack was preceded by a similar incident in the Malian capital of Bamako, in which 22 people were killed and 170 taken hostage. The Mali attack in November 2015 also targeted a hotel, Radisson Blue, reputed to be popular among foreigners. Reports confirm that the leader of the Ouagadougou attack, an Algerian called Mokhtar Belmokhtar, also claimed responsibility for the attack in Bamako. He reportedly led the group that attacked a gas plant in Algeria and executed 38 hostages, before he was dislodged in a swift counterattack by Algerian security agents.
Although al-Qaeda has had a longer presence in Africa, yet, with the relatively recent emergence of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, the race for the soul of Africa seems to have started. The series of conflicts in Africa, which has spewed forth a surfeit of weak states across the continent, has not helped matters, since such places are usually inviting to terror groups. This was the situation that ISIS exploited to announce its emergence in Africa early last year. In a show of cold-blooded brutality for which the group has become so notorious, ISIS, in February last year, presented a video clip capturing the brutal beheading of 21 Coptic Egyptians at a Libyan beach, claiming it was a retaliatory action for crimes against Muslims by people of the “religion of the cross.”
Apart from threats of retaliation by the Egyptian government and a few words of condemnation from the United States government and the United Nations, nothing else was heard about the incident. But incidents such as this increasingly mirror the vulnerability of African countries to terror attacks and the need for united and well-coordinated efforts to dislodge the terrorists, just the way they were sent scampering by a combined team of French and African forces when they attempted to march to the Malian capital in 2012.
The danger posed by foreign terror groups is worsened by the fact that the home-grown ones are increasingly pledging allegiance to them and looking up to them for inspiration. For instance, the al-Qaeda groups that have been causing havoc in Africa and the Arabian Peninsula are affiliates of the main terror group. Here in Nigeria, Boko Haram, identified as the deadliest terror group last year, according to the Global Terrorism Index, based on the number of people it killed, announced its affiliation to ISIS in March 2015. The same step has been taken by al-Shabaab, another deadly group that operates in Somalia, Kenya and other East African countries. For al-Shabaab, it was a case of swapping al-Qaeda for ISIS.
From the 1998 bombing of American embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, resulting in the death of 244 people, Africa has had its fair share of attacks. Though the death toll included 12 Americans, the majority of the victims of the bombing were Africans. Uganda also suffered easily one of its worst attacks when 74 football fans were killed in a bomb blast as they were watching the South Africa 2010 World Cup final match between the Netherlands and Spain.
Needless to say that the tempo of terrorism in West Africa increased significantly with the collapse of the Muammar Gaddafi administration in Libya in October 2011, paving the way for the flow of sophisticated weapons through the country’s unmanned borders to other contiguous countries. It, therefore, stands to reason that, with the war against ISIS in the Middle East currently increasing in intensity, the ungoverned territories of Africa and the weak and failed states will likely be the next destination for fleeing terrorists.
This is the time to revisit the idea of an African Rapid Response Partnership mooted by American President, Barack Obama, in 2014. The American leader had promised to invest $110 million a year for the next three to five years in it, insisting that “the entire world has a stake in peacekeeping in Africa.” Unfortunately, nothing has happened since then. Terrorism has been ravaging the African continent while the world is looking the other way. But if the world is not concerned, Africans should be. The responsibility for securing itself is primarily Africa’s, not that of America. African leaders should not wait until they are overwhelmed the way Iraq and Syria were before they act.
And with Boko Haram now restricted to the fringes of the country, Nigeria should also ensure that no ungoverned space is spared for ISIS to be able to establish a foothold. Good governance is very important. The country’s security system should also be alert and well-motivated. It is usually easier to prevent terror than to dislodge it.
