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Africa: Counter-Terrorism Must Adapt to New Realities
ISS, 4 November 2020
As the terror threat grows and spreads, could a special unit in the African Standby Force help? Read more »
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West Africa: The Islamic State Franchises - Lessons From Lake Chad
Crisis Group, 29 October 2020
While in decline in the Levant, the Islamic State has claimed some gains in Africa. Testimonies from defectors who once waged jihad in the Lake Chad basin shed new light on the… Read more »
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Africa: Be Afraid! Extremist Groups Have a Grand Terror Scheme for Africa
East African, 30 October 2020
The last three months have been very good for violent extremist groups in the wider Eastern African and Great Lakes regions. And we should be afraid. Read more »
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Somalia: U.S. Focused On Disrupting Finances for Somalia's Al-Shabaab
Shabelle, 29 October 2020
The United States strongly backed efforts to disrupt the illegal financing methods used by Somalia's al-Shabab extremist group, which according to U.N. experts raised more than the… Read more »
Can Unit in African Standby Force Help Fight Insurgency?
Africa experienced 1,168 terror attacks from January to August 2020 - 18% more than the 982 incidents in the same period in 2019. Years after numerous counter-terrorism operations were deployed, including the African Union Mission in Somalia (AMISOM), the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) against Boko Haram and many non-African missions, the continent is no closer to defeating or containing violent extremism. Information about ISIS's growth in Africa is scarce. After the dramatic collapse of the Islamic State (ISIS) "caliphate" in 2017, officials and observers are debating whether renewed attacks by ISIS in Iraq, signal a resurgence there. What seems undeniable though, is that the fortunes of ISIS-linked militants in sub-Saharan Africa are rising. The ISIS franchise in the Sahel has expanded significantly, confounding the efforts of regional armies and a French-led military mission. The growing threat posed by violent extremism across Africa, shows the need to revisit existing continental responses, writes Shewit Woldemichael for the Institute for Security Studies.
InFocus
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Islamic State militants operating in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, have carried their attacks across the border into Tanzania, where they allegedly beheaded 20 ... Read more »
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Hundreds of civilians in towns and villages across extremist-hit parts of Burkina Faso have signed up to protect their communities and combat jihadist groups, since a new law - ... Read more »
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Two men, Mohamed Abdi and Hussein Hassan, have been convicted for their participation in the 2013 attack at Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi. They have been handed 18 year terms ... Read more »
