The United States says parts of Africa are facing renewed extremist threats as remnants of the Islamic State (ISIS) regroup on the continent after their defeat in Iraq and Syria.
ISIS was declared defeated by the governments of Syria and
Iraq in 2017 after years of military operations backed by US troops.
By late 2014, cells of militants claiming to be affiliates
or direct extensions of ISIS had emerged in a number of conflict zones in
Africa, the Middle East, and Central Asia.
In a new counterterrorism strategy, the US said the jihadist
group was forced to splinter and relocate to Africa and Central Asia,
exploiting the weak governance structures in the region.
“As a result, today there are parts of Africa where a
resurgent terror threat is the reality. These include in West Africa, the Sahel
region, the Lake Chad Basin, Mozambique, Sudan, and of course Somalia, where
parts of ISIS have re-established themselves and Al Shabaab maintains its
tribal-based Islamist insurgency,” the document reads.
In the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin, where parts of northern
Nigeria fall under, the ISIS provinces operate as Boko Haram and Islamic State
in West Africa Province (ISWAP), controlling territory and attacking military
and civilian targets.
“In Africa, we have two clear goals that depart from the
nation-building and interventionist policies of the past. The first is to
guarantee that none of the Jihadi groups can build a base of operations that
allows them to plot and execute attacks against the United States and American
interests around the world,” the US counterterrorism document reads.
“The second is to protect Christians, who have been
slaughtered at the hands of these Jihadi groups.”
Nigerian authorities have been accused by some US lawmakers
and groups of failing to adequately confront extremist violence targeting
Christian communities.
But the President Bola Tinubu-administration has maintained
that Nigeria’s security challenges are beyond sectional interests.
The US said President Donald Trump’s decision to bomb
Islamist militants on Christmas Day demonstrated that attacks on Christian
communities would not be ignored.
Nigeria said it green-lit the operation.
In its counterterrorism strategy, the US noted that while it
planned to reduce its global military footprint, it would continue targeting
extremist groups in Africa capable of carrying out external attacks against US
interests.
The US said it is rebuilding bilateral counterterrorism
relations with African governments and will continue to work with governments
threatened by groups like ISIS and al Qaeda affiliates, and assist them with
actionable intelligence and counterterrorism partner-force development, until
“our shared foes no longer pose a serious threat to either them or us”.
“Wherever possible, we will marry such CT cooperation with
the stabilizing effect of heightened trade and commercial relations, as
witnessed by President Trump’s historic peace deal between Rwanda and the
Democratic Republic of the Congo – an example of how security is a prerequisite
for prosperity,” the US said.
The US added that Africa has “almost limitless potential”
but only if governments exercise sovereign control over their territories and
close space to terrorists and violent extremists.
The document added that the US will expect regional partners
to accept a greater portion of the counterterrorism burden.
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