From VOA:
“US: Africa Needs Tailored
Strategies to Fight ISIS Groups”
(Malian Police officers take
position outside Campement Kangaba, a tourist resort near Bamako, Mali, June.
19, 2017.)
African countries are being
encouraged to use both soft and hard power to counter the growing threat posed
by Islamic State on the continent. The U.S. government is giving more than $100
million to African states to overcome terrorism. Top U.S. security officials
say African leadership and voices are needed to ensure security assistance is
targeted to where it’s needed most. Last week, security leaders from the Global
Coalition to Defeat ISIS pledged to support African security agencies in dealing
with the terrorist activities of the Islamic State.
The coalition, which has 85
members, met in Morocco to discuss ways of dislodging fighters allied to ISIS
from Mali, Burkina Faso, Mozambique and several other African countries. Terror
activities by these militants have increased in recent years, killing tens of
thousands and displacing millions — creating a humanitarian crisis. Chris
Landberg. the State Department’s acting principal deputy coordinator for
counterterrorism, says some African governments will receive millions of
dollars to improve their efforts in fighting terrorism. “So, we are increased
in this every year, and we’re looking to use it to improve capabilities of our
partnered civilian, law enforcement, and judiciary with the goals of disrupting
and apprehending, prosecuting, and convicting terrorists across the continent,”
he said.
Akinola Olojo, a senior
researcher at the Institute for Security Studies, says the ISIS affiliates in
Africa are different from each other and will require tailored strategies to
defeat them. “While we recognize that there seems to be a similarity at a certain
level, in a different way we see that even the actors involved or the
insecurity actors involved as well as the way they relate with communities, the
way they sort of act against the state takes different expressions. And we need
to understand these nuances in order to have approaches that adequately match
what is manifesting in the different contexts,” he said.
The deputy Special Envoy for the
Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS Doug Hoyt said countering the militants’
messaging is critical. “So, the coalition itself will probably continue to
launch platforms against what we see as the vulnerable youth certainly in the
Sahara — in the Sahel and trans-Sahara region. So, what we’re emphasizing with
communications is it’s not top-down, it’s bottom-up. So we start at the local
level and we work with member governments and we tailor this messaging in
language and customs and traditions and what’s going on here, and we very much
want the African members out front on that,” he said.
The U.N. Global Counter-Terrorism
Strategy, an instrument meant to enhance the international effort to counter
terrorism, calls for nations to address the conditions terror groups use to
spread terrorism. It also aims at building the states’ capacity to prevent and
combat terrorism while adopting measures to respect human rights and the rule
of law. Olojo says African security agencies were encouraged to use different
ways to tackle terrorism apart from the usual military response. “Hard
responses have a role to play, of course, but then going beyond this to address
governance gaps, addressing ideologies pushed by these affiliates, addressing
issues of human rights violations," he said. "Engaging communities
more deeply or more effectively, having a dialogue on several levels within
communities. All these components are things that are highlighted at this
meeting and then we see how they fit into a broader approach.” U.S. officials
say the lessons used to weaken ISIS in Iraq and Syria can be apply in Africa
but will need individuals present on the continent to get results.
^ Many IS and other Terrorists
continue to attack many places in Africa and the US and the world needs to do
more to stop them. ^
https://www.voanews.com/a/us-africa-needs-tailored-strategies-to-fight-isis-groups-/6579078.html
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