To address drivers of instability in Africa, prevailing regional threats, and solutions to Silafi-jihadists on the continent of Africa, Africa’s defence force chiefs met in West Africa last week where the United States supported the annual four-day Africa Land Forces Summit (ALFS).
The Ivorian government hosted the now concluded 11th conference, held between 8 and 12 May in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire.
Troubling direction on terrorism has persisted in recent years, and available data supports the pervasive threat. The world suffered “10 172 terrorism incidents in 2020, a sum surpassing those in 2019,” (29 389 fatalities), according to the Global Terrorism Trends and Analysis Centre (GTTAC).
Al-Shabaab ranks 3rd in the world, behind the Taliban and the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), for laying claim to their terrorist incidents in 2020, GTTAC’s evidence reveals. Globally, out of all terrorist incidents, “86.5 percent of these—or more than six of every seven attacks—were concentrated in three geographic regions: Western Asia, Southern Asia, and Sub-Sahaan Africa.”
Four African countries—the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, Nigeria, and Mali—rank in the top 10 countries with the largest volume of terrorist incidents in 2020.
Building the capacity of African militaries has been one approach to countering terrorism. Between 2002 and 2019, various types of military training initiatives and programmes, provided by the US Government, benefited some countries, for example, at least 3 326 DRC forces and several thousand on Nigerian forces, were beneficiaries of training.
All US measures are aligned with the recently launched US National Defence Strategy. Wasmund emphasized that America’s approach in Africa has now been recalibrated to focus on a “partner-led and US-enabled” approach. It is conferences like the ALFS that help senior land force’s chiefs share their insights and seek solutions.
ALFS was launched on 10 May 2010. The hosting country is on a rotational basis sand the Zambian Defence Forces will host next year’s summit.
From The Shadows Emerges Knowledge