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Showing posts from February 21, 2021

From Separatism to Salafism: Militancy on the Swahili Coast

Nolan Quinn  is a research associate for the Council on Foreign Relations’ Africa Program. The revelation that a Kenyan member of  al-Shabab  was  charged with planning  a 9/11-style attack on the United States has served to underline the Somali terror group’s enduring presence in East Africa and the region’s continuing relevance to U.S. national security. Shabab has terrorized the northern reaches of the Swahili Coast, which runs  from southern Somalia to northern Mozambique , for  well over a decade . More recently, a  brutal  jihadi insurgency has emerged on the Swahili Coast’s southern tip. Ansar al-Sunna (ASWJ), known among other names as  Swahili Sunna , ramped up its violent activities in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province in 2017 before spreading more recently  into Tanzania . The risk of a further rise in jihadism along the Swahili Coast is serious—and growing. The Swahili Coast has long been recognized as having a  rich, eclectic culture shaped by interactions with predominan

Chad seeks global support to tackle militancy in Sahel

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Chad has called for international support to help the beleaguered Sahel region of Africa as five nations and ally France began a summit on the future of their anti-militant campaign. Leaders of the "G5 Sahel" – Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger – are attending a two-day summit in the Chadian capital N'Djamena with French President Emmanuel Macron joining in by videolink. Opening the meeting on Monday, Chadian President Idriss Deby Itno said the vast Sahel was struggling with "poverty, which is fertile ground for terrorism." He said it was time for the international community to "urgently" step up funds for development, to help cut off this source of recruitment for militants. Militant control of vast areas The meeting comes a year after France boosted its Sahel deployment, seeking to wrench back momentum in the brutal, long-running battle. But despite touted military successes, militants remain in control of vast swathes of territory and

Diplomacy in militancy

I ndia  has faced political militancy ever since Independence and what the British called terrorism for nearly a century before it. The Intelligence Bureau, run by the British, produced some good studies of the communist movement written by successive Directors of the I.B.—Cecil Kaye, David Petrie and Horace Williamson. Their volumes were entitled  Communism in India . P.C. Bamford, Deputy Director, I.B., produced an able study on the Ali brothers’ Khilafat and Gandhi’s Non-Cooperation Movements; severely factual and well documented. The British set up a committee to inquire into terrorist movements in India headed by Justice S.A.T. Rowlatt of the King’s Bench Division of the High Court in England and with four other members. The other members were Sir Basil Scott, Chief Justice of the Bombay High Court, C.V. Kumaraswami, Judge of the Madras High Court, and two English members. Their report, the infamous Rowlatt Report, was produced in record time. Appointed on December 10, 1917, it ga

South Africa speechless following latest murder of Rwandan dissident

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“We still don’t know what to make of it,” a senior official tells  The Africa Report . “The police haven’t told us anything as yet, so we don’t know.” Local co-ordinator for the Rwanda National Congress (RNC) Seif Bamporiki was shot while delivering a bed in to a customer in the Europa informal settlement in Nyanga, outside Cape Town. It could have been passed off as just another robbery in one of the most deadly peace-time neighbourhoods in the world,  were it not for one thing:  witnesses say the killer’s gun had a silencer. “Our criminals are not that sophisticated that they would have guns with silencers,” says the official.  “That is someone hired from outside.” Other possibilities exists: that Bamporiki was involved in shady dealings or organised crime – also rife in that part of Cape Town – and that this was a deal gone wrong. But RNC spokesperson Etienne Mutabazi says Bamporiki’s murder “was executed in a similar modus operandi of luring the victim in a compromising and insecur

Pakistan-Afghanistan border fence, a step in the right direction

The border barrier will decrease the number of cross-border attacks, but more needs to be done to secure the region. Abdul Basit Pakistan is about to reach a new milestone in its fight against terrorism. The fence barrier it is building on the Durand Line, the 2,640km (1,640-mile) land border between Afghanistan and Pakistan that passes through rugged mountains, densely forested valleys and narrow rock passages, is nearing completion. Islamabad started fencing its porous border with Afghanistan in March 2017, after facing a spate of deadly attacks from Afghanistan-based Pakistani militant groups in the previous year. Despite a slow-performing economy, disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and a volatile security environment, the work on the border continued mostly uninterrupted in the last four years. So far, 85 percent of the border has been fenced, and the remaining work is expected to be completed by April 2021. The border barrier consists of two sets of chain-link fences, sepa

Martinsburg police investigate shooting; one person wounded

MARTINSBURG, W.Va. — Police are investigating a shooting that wounded one person Thursday. According to a news release from Det. Cpl. J.D. Luciano of the Martinsburg Police Department, the incident was reported just before 10 p.m. in the area of Martin Luther King Park at Tuskegee Avenue and West Martin Street. Witnesses reported hearing multiple shots fired. At about the same time, medics from the Martinsburg Fire Department were sent to Franklin Manor Apartments near the park to treat a person with a gunshot wound. The wound does not appear to be life-threatening, according to the release. The victim, an 18-year-old man, was taken to WVU Medicine Berkeley Medical Center. He told police he heard shots fired and realized he had been struck. Investigators are asking anyone with information about the shooting to contact Luciano at 304-264-2100 or call the Berkeley County Crime Solvers at 304-267-4999.  Source:  https://www.heraldmailmedia.com/news/tri_state/west_virginia/martinsburg-poli

Afghans ‘Disappointed’ One Year into US-Taliban Deal

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WASHINGTON - A year into the U.S.-Taliban agreement, Afghan leaders say they are frustrated with the continued rise of violence by the militant group that has taken a toll on civilians. The agreement, signed on Feb. 29, 2020, asks for the withdrawal of all U.S. forces by May 2021, but only if the Taliban keep their promises of cutting ties with terrorist groups and participating in intra-Afghan talks for a permanent cease-fire and a political roadmap for Afghanistan. “The increase in violence has disappointed Afghans,” said Shukria Barakzai, a former member of the lower house of Afghan parliament. “The Taliban promised that they will reduce violence; and would make peace with the Afghan government, but unfortunately they have not done so.” FILE - Afghans carry the coffin of a victim of a bombing and shooting attack, during his funeral, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Dec. 23, 2020. More than 3,000 civilians were killed, and 5,800 others were injured in Afghanistan in 2020, according to a report

Amnesty International: Tigray massacre 'may amount to a crime against humanity'

A  new Amnesty International report  states that in late November, soldiers from Eritrea who had been fighting in the Tigray region of Ethiopia entered the city of Axum and "systemically killed hundreds of unarmed civilians" in a "massacre that may amount to a crime against humanity." There have long been tensions between the Ethiopian federal government and leaders in Tigray, and in early November, members of the national military began clashing with Tigrayan forces.  Both Ethiopia and Eritrea's governments have denied reports of conflict. Witnesses say on Nov. 19, Ethiopian and Eritrean military forces took control of Axum, and soldiers executed people and looted stores, hospitals, and homes. The worst violence occurred later that month, when unarmed civilians were reportedly shot as they ran from soldiers, and others were taken from their homes, lined up, and executed. Since fighting began in the region, Tigray has largely been cut off from the outside world.