Essay about Terrorism Threats to the African Continent

Somalia has been a land of strife since its modern history began in the early 1900’s, when British rule was challenged through constant attacks led by Mohammad Abdullah, AKA “Mad Mullah”, a folk hero amongst modern day Somalis (African Affairs, 2011). Conflict in Somalia continues to thrive thanks in large part to the terrorist group Al Shabaab (“the youth” in Arabic), a radical Islamic based organization that maintains control over a large portion of the central and southern part of the country. Al Shabaab has ties to Al Qaeda (AQ) with the main goal of installing a fundamentalist Islamist government in Somalia and is conducting an insurgency against both the UN-backed Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and the African Union

In nearly 100 countries throughout the world al-Qaeda had followers in which would carry out attacks, without question, when told to do so. In addition, locals within these countries, alongside professional

In the post Osama bin Laden era al-Qaedist ideology is flourishing across the Arab world. A significant development has been the rise of al-Qaeda offshoots in the Middle East. The Abdallah Azzam Brigades franchise has increasingly become a noteworthy actor in terrorism. On May 8th, 2012 Thomas Nides, Deputy Secretary of State designated Abdallah Azzam Brigades as a foreign terrorist organization (Nides, T.R. , 2012). Abdullah Azzam Brigades may have only recently been added as a foreign terrorist group; nevertheless the organization has deep roots, lethal capacity, and is capable of contributing to supplementary instability in the Middle East.

Thesis: Since the 9/11 terrorists’ attacks, terrorism has extended far beyond the United States and into other nations such as Africa. Even though these acts of aggressions take place outside of the United States, the government should have the capability to counteract groups who engage in the terrorism without fear of reprisal. Therefore, the establishment of a new Combatant Command for Africa (AFRICOM) should mark an important milestone in the prevention of the terrorist attacks against the United States. Africa Command in partnership with African countries will help protect and defend the national security interests of the

It was quite eye-opening to find out that every single country in our world has experienced a terrorist attack, whether that be minor or major. Gaining knowledge about this issue allowed us to come up with solutions to combat this problem, in order to avoid getting targeted by other countries. The largest and most well-known terrorist group in Syria is named ISIS (Islamic State of Iran and Syria). This group has taken over many cities in Syria, including the city of Damascus which has been named “ISIS’ Capital City”. ISIS frequently targets families, and many foreign civilians. During my research, I came to the realization that many other countries also have terrorist groups, which are unheard of in the media. For this task, I researched terrorism in Saudi Arabia, Cuba, Japan, China, Iran, and India. During this research, I learned that Saudi Arabia is one of the largest sponsors of terrorism, and they are the world’s largest source of funds/promoters of Salafist Jihadism, which is where terrorist groups such as ISIS, and al-Qaeda get their ideological basis. Iran, much like Saudi Arabia, is classified by the U.S government as the “most active state sponsor of terrorism”. After the Iranian Revolution in 1979, they have been accused

In an attempt to gain local perspective of the most recent terror attacks in Western Africa, reporter Carley Petesch of the Associated Press has been stationed in the region as their lead West-African correspondent. In the article she discusses how the beach massacre in Ivory Coast and the attack on a Mali hotel have forced the United Nations and European Union to dispatch troops to the area, with the hopes of improving local security measures. She speaks with locals and an area security consultant to discuss how the terrorist group known as Al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) continue to terrorize the region, and local governments are in need of international assistance to prevent future attacks.

In the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, the United States, including its allies, waged brutal campaigns directed at the Al Qaeda leadership and, the Taliban in the Middle East. America’s fight against terrorism nonetheless consumed billions of dollars since the 9/11 attacks. Earlier, countries such as England, Spain, Italy, and Russia, similarly waged wars against the Provisional Irish Republican Army, Euskadi Ta Askatasuna, the Red Brigades and the Chechnya separatists. In most of these cases, research shed light on the mechanisms that led to the demise or the defeat of these terrorist groups. However, when it comes to similar groups located in the southern hemispheric countries such as Nigeria, the mechanisms leading to the group

Al-Qaeda and its leaders, Osama Bin Laden and Ayman Al-Zawahiri are frequently popular world news subjects. (Piszkiewicz, 2003, p. iii) The world seems to want to be constantly aware of the goings on of these people and their organization. There is no secret to the desired need for this information. As most people know Al-Qaeda is a significant and ongoing threat to the world, with regard to terrorist activities and continued fundamentalist extremism with regard to jihad, or what these extremists see as a holy war against the rest of the world, but mostly the Western world. This work will begin with a short introduction to the threat that Al-Qaeda poses to the world as a way to develop a full profile of the organization,

Additionally, Al Qaeda has grown in the last ten years and currently runs global operations in: Iraq, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Somalia, Algeria, Libya, Indonesia and the Philippines. (site) Before September 11, 2001 Al Qaeda was a several hundred member organization in Sudan and the caves of Afghanistan. They have since grown to a global terrorist network that is on the rise. This displays the global expansion of Al Qaeda and how it has continued to grow despite United States and international efforts to eliminate the terrorist organization. Also, there are hundreds of Al Qaeda sponsored terrorist cells in nearly one hundred countries including the United States, United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain. (Site)This poses a significant threat to the security of Western nations as these cells could be activated at any moment to create havoc in a targeted country. Equally important, Al Qaeda works in congruence with many other terrorist organizations such as the: Armed Islamic Group, Hezbollah, Salafist Group, Egyptian Islamic Jihad and Islamic Army

Economics played a huge role for Al Qaeda in the 1990s for the Southeast Asian region, particularly the Philippines, Indonesia, and Singapore. Al Qaeda not only set up regional offices, but it also helped create, strengthen, and make more violent indigenous groups such as the Indonesian based Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) network. By the mid-2000s, however, the actions of various national authorities in Southeast Asia appear to have drastically reduced the size and influence of Al Qaeda, JI, and other sympathetic groups. Throughout the decade, the United States—along with Australia—used capacity-building assistance and at times diplomatic pressure to support and push regional governments’ counterterrorism efforts. It should be noted that while there has been much anti-Western terrorist activity in Southeast Asia many militants in the region are focused on local agendas.

The Al-Shabaab is regarded as one of the most dangerous African terrorist organizations. Al-Shabaab is a multiethnic militant group out of Somalia that uses many terrorist tactics in attempts to gain control over the country of Somalia. They use many forms of terrorism that include ideological revolutionary, dissident, and nationalist terrorism, as they have the motive to gain power over a territory by overthrowing the government. The Al-Shabaab is suspected to have taken part in many terrorist attacks, including the 1998 United States embassies bombings. The motive behind their violence is their goal of creating an Islamic state in Somalia, which they believe is morally justified by the ideological beliefs. An important psychological

Al-Shabaab as a terrorist group poses a significant threat in Somalia and in the global community. This paper will start by discussing the background. In this part the paper will show how the group has evolved from Al-Ittihad Al-Islam (AIAI) to the Islamic Court Union (ICU) and lastly to Al-Shabaab. Before discussing the group’s threat of national security, homeland and international, this paper will provide the conceptual meaning of key terminology, such as national security, homeland security, international security and globalization. It is important to understand these concepts before moving toward the main argument of the paper. After providing the framework for key concepts, the paper will discuss the group’s threat to Somalia in two areas, national security and homeland security. The paper will go further and identify the threats posed by the group on other nations’ homeland security and international security. We will use East African countries and the United States examples. The paper will provide evidence to support how globalization has shaped and fueled the threats from Al-Shabaab. It will then discuss the primary response from the United States and from African countries through AMISOM. The paper will provide the way forward and suggestions for the response of the international community to Al-Shabaab. In conclusion, we will try to alert the international community that although the group has been experience hard times in Somalia, it is unwise to

The government can implement many new methods to increase security, or better yet give off the image of better security which is what they have predominantly done, yet ultimately there will always be a way to bypass or come up with a new way to infiltrate that measure. The government so far has done a variety of things ranging from the closing of the Dulles airport (permanently), working with the FAA on new security measures, having pilots carry handguns, and a not so specific, profiling.

On the 22nd of September 2003 Kofi Annan, UN Secretary-General, organized a conference “Fighting Terrorism for Humanity” in New York City. He opened the summit with words: “Terrorism will only be defeated if we act to solve the political disputes or long-standing conflicts that generate support for it. (…) If we do not, we should find ourselves acting as recruiting sergeants for the very terrorists. We have to win hearts and minds.” The causes of terrorism may be inter alia historical, economical, religious or ideological, and there is no way to entirely eliminate it from our world. Preventing terrorism needs complete understanding of the phenomenon and

Kenya has been the battlefield of tragic terrorist attacks on western interests twice since 1998 – once in 1998 when the US embassy was attacked and a second time in 2002 when a Israeli-owned Paradise hotel was bombed. In 1980, Jewish-owned Norfolk hotel was attacked by the PLO. Every single attack shared a common thread of irony: the majority of the lives lost were Kenyan, even though the ideology behind the attacks suggests that Kenyan and Kenyans were not involved in the political dynamic that precipitated the attacks.