An exploration of how Jihadist forces are responsible for instigating
and escalating conflicts in countries across Africa.
Africa currently faces more wars, insurgencies, army mutinies, coups
d'état and rebellions than at any time since World War II. Conflict in
all forms has become endemic, now accentuated by a relative newcomer:
Jihadism, increasingly linked to either Islamic State or al-Qaeda.
The year 2020 saw a record high in state-based conflicts on the African
continent: around 22,000 incidents of armed conflict recorded. There
were two dozen country-based military struggles recorded, three or four
more than in 2018. Of these, 13 battled over territory, the highest
number ever. Incidents of conflict have risen each year since, and the
broader canvas since Russia's invasion of the Ukraine suggests things
will continue to worsen. Islamic Jihadist forces are responsible for
much of this, involved in a succession of conflicts in Africa. These
range all the way across the Sub-Sahara swathe, Mauretania, Mali,
Burkina Faso and Chad, the Sudans as well as Somalia. A more recent
entrant to the fray is Tanzania, whose Dar es Salaam government in late
2021 appealed to the European Union for military help to counter an
escalating Jihadist insurgency in its southern province.
The upward trend is sobering. And there are long-term security
implications both within and beyond Africa--if conditions do
deteriorate, Europe will ultimately be threatened. Veteran war
correspondent Al Venter brings his decades of experience to illuminate
what Islamic Jihadist forces are effecting in Africa, and why, and what
the future may hold.
