Apr 27, 2015
The proliferation of jihad in Africa is the result of the breakdown of state order in Somalia and Libya, the ability to mobilise local grievances into hardcore militia and the absence of state authority in large parts of the African continent
April 14 marked the first anniversary of the abduction of over 200 girls from a small school in a remote corner of Nigeria by a shadowy jihadi organisation, Boko Haram. In the last two years, jihadis have attacked several high-profile targets in the Horn of Africa and across North Africa and the Sahel. Jihad is now a pervasive presence in Africa.
The origins of the “Africanisation” of jihad go back to Algeria where, from the early 1990s, Al Qaeda veterans from Afghanistan fought in the ongoing civil war. From this low-key presence, Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) emerged in 2007, and has Algeria, Morocco, Libya and Tunisia as its operational space. A breakaway group, Al Mourabitoun, headed by the veteran of Afghanistan and the Algerian civil war, Mokhtar Belmokhtar, is active in the Sahel, covering southern Algeria, Mauritania, Niger, Chad and Mali.
No comments:
Post a Comment