Table Of Content‘Hussein Solomon paints a nuanced, sophisticated portrait of the
origins and motives of African terrorists that blends poverty, desertifi-
cation, ethnic discrimination and African state corruption and neglect
with “historical amnesia” and cultural ignorance by Western leaders.
Dr Solomon’s rich text provides much to learn and implement by
United Nations and African Union policy-makers as well as by African
state leaders struggling to counter terrorism and regain the public trust.’
—Dr Robert Zuber, Director,
Global Action to Prevent War and Armed Conflict
‘Hussein Solomon, one of the most prolific political scientists in South
Africa, has succeeded in combining three key deliberations in his book
Terrorism and Counter-Terrorism in Africa: an inside knowledge of the
Islamic and Muslim world, an in-depth understanding of the African
security domain, and an outstanding conceptualisation of (counter-)
terrorism. The publication is broad in scope and thorough in analysis.
The book not only provides an outstanding outline of both the terrorist
threat and role of Islam in Africa; it also offers an in-depth analysis of
how these two considerations merge in Africa in organisations like
Al Shabaab and Boko Haram in Somalia and Nigeria respectively. Lastly,
the African Union and the US are most probably the only actors that
endeavour to develop counter-terrorist strategies at a continental level in
Africa. The book offers an excellent analysis of the response to counter-
terrorism by both these authorities. In all, a must-read for anybody with
an interest in the study of terrorism in general and the manifestation of
the phenomenon in Africa and the Islamic communities in particular.’
—Abel Esterhuyse, Stellenbosch University, South Africa
‘Hussein Solomon has provided an excellent detailed, original, holistic
and useful study of the counter-terrorism strategies employed in Africa
today and the reasons for its failure to defeat terrorism throughout the
continent. Professor Solomon has also provided a very innovative and
comprehensive study of the three main radical Islamic terrorist organi-
sations active in Africa today: Al Shabaab, Ansar Dine and Boko Haram.
This book is essential to the understanding of the various motives for
the growth of radical Islamic terrorist organisations throughout Africa as
well as to the need to apply a new holistic counter-terrorism approach to
defeat these organisations. This book is a must read for decision-makers
and security personnel in Africa and abroad as well as for any serious
student of terrorism, security studies and African studies.’
—Dr Moshe Terdman, Director,
Research on Islam and Muslims in Africa
‘Hussein Solomon warns that Islamist-inspired insurgencies and terror-
ism pose an existential threat to several weak states in Africa. To stop
the “Islamist juggernaut”, Solomon advocates a continental counter-
terrorism strategy combining force of arms with the force of ideas. Policy-
makers and analysts in Africa and beyond should heed this forthright
and fearless study by one of South Africa’s foremost experts on terrorism.’
—Professor Deon Geldenhuys, Department of Political Studies at the
University of Johannesburg, South Africa
‘The growing instability in Africa from national and transnational sources
tends to find a simplistic explanation in the term “terrorism”. Herein lies
one of the major contributory factors of ineffective approaches to the
threat – an assumption that the phenomenon and its causes are one-
dimensional, leading to one-dimensional counteractions. The complex-
ity of the subject, its manifestation, its mutation and its interface with
associated illegal activities is portrayed in this book with disturbing clar-
ity, with an equally clear warning – if the threat is not addressed from
a more innovative, interdisciplinary national and regional perspective,
the factors giving rise to the problem will entrench themselves and con-
tinue to generate a breeding ground for challenging the status quo.’
—South African Admiral (rtd) Steve Stead
‘This book is a brilliant summary of the threat of terrorism in three criti-
cal hotspots on the continent. Bringing the historical origins of terrorism
in Somalia, Nigeria and Mali in context, while assessing the approach
these specific governments, the region and the US adopted, the author
manages to capture the complexities of the threat and current ineffec-
tive counter-initiatives. It is a must for scholars, policy-makers and prac-
titioners alike in understanding the phenomenon while developing and
implementing more effective counter-strategies.’
—Dr Anneli Botha, Senior Researcher,
Institute for Security Studies, South Africa
‘Terrorism is emerging as one of Africa’s most daunting issues. Hussein
Solomon’s book is therefore a timeous contribution by an African
scholar to understanding terrorism in Somalia, Mali and Nigeria in par-
ticular. His discussion of the counter-strategies by the African Union and
the US provides a readily available framework for readers to make sense
of a highly complex phenomenon.’
—Professor Dirk Kotzé, University of South Africa, South Africa
New Security Challenges Series
General Editor: Stuart Croft, Professor of International Security in the Department of Politics
and International Studies at the University of Warwick, UK, and Director of the ESRC’s New
Security Challenges Programme.
The last decade demonstrated that threats to security vary greatly in their causes and mani-
festations, and that they invite interest and demand responses from the social sciences, civil
society and a very broad policy community. In the past, the avoidance of war was the pri-
mary objective, but with the end of the Cold War the retention of military defence as the
centrepiece of international security agenda became untenable. There has been, therefore, a
significant shift in emphasis away from traditional approaches to security to a new agenda
that talks of the softer side of security, in terms of human security, economic security and
environmental security. The topical New Security Challenges Series reflects this pressing politi-
cal and research agenda.
Titles include:
Natasha Underhill
COUNTERING GLOBAL TERRORISM AND INSURGENCY
Calculating the Risk of State-Failure in Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iraq
Abdul Haqq Baker
EXTREMISTS IN OUR MIDST
Confronting Terror
Robin Cameron
SUBJECTS OF SECURITY
Domestic Effects of Foreign Policy in the War on Terror
Sharyl Cross, Savo Kentera, R. Craig Nation and Radovan Vukadinovic (editors)
SHAPING SOUTH EAST EUROPE’S SECURITY COMMUNITY FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
Trust, Partnership, Integration
Tom Dyson and Theodore Konstadinides
EUROPEAN DEFENCE COOPERATION IN EU LAW AND IR THEORY
Håkan Edström, Janne Haaland Matlary and Magnus Petersson (editors)
NATO: THE POWER OF PARTNERSHIPS
Håkan Edström and Dennis Gyllensporre
POLITICAL ASPIRATIONS AND PERILS OF SECURITY
Unpacking the Military Strategy of the United Nations
Hakan Edström and Dennis Gyllensporre (editors)
PURSUING STRATEGY
NATO Operations from the Gulf War to Gaddafi
Hamed El-Said
NEW APPROACHES TO COUNTERING TERRORISM
Designing and Evaluating Counter Radicalization and De-Radicalization Programs
Philip Everts and Pierangelo Isernia
PUBLIC OPINION, TRANSATLANTIC RELATIONS AND THE USE OF FORCE
Adrian Gallagher
GENOCIDE AND ITS THREAT TO CONTEMPORARY INTERNATIONAL ORDER
Kevin Gillan, Jenny Pickerill and Frank Webster
ANTI-WAR ACTIVISM
New Media and Protest in the Information Age
James Gow and Ivan Zverzhanovski
SECURITY, DEMOCRACY AND WAR CRIMES
Security Sector Transformation in Serbia
Toni Haastrup
CHARTING TRANSFORMATION THROUGH SECURITY
Contemporary EU-Africa Relations
Ellen Hallams, Luca Ratti and Ben Zyla (editors)
NATO BEYOND 9/11
The Transformation of the Atlantic Alliance
Carolin Hilpert
STRATEGIC CULTURAL CHANGE AND THE CHALLENGE FOR SECURITY POLICY
Germany and the Bundeswehr’s Deployment to Afghanistan
Christopher Hobbs, Matthew Moran and Daniel Salisbury (editors)
OPEN SOURCE INTELLIGENCE IN THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY
New Approaches and Opportunities
Paul Jackson and Peter Albrecht
RECONSTRUCTION SECURITY AFTER CONFLICT
Security Sector Reform in Sierra Leone
Janne Haaland Matlary
EUROPEAN UNION SECURITY DYNAMICS
In the New National Interest
Sebastian Mayer (editor)
NATO’s POST-COLD WAR POLITICS
The Changing Provision of Security
Kevork Oskanian
FEAR, WEAKNESS AND POWER IN THE POST-SOVIET SOUTH CAUCASUS
A Theoretical and Empirical Analysis
Michael Pugh, Neil Cooper and Mandy Turner (editors)
WHOSE PEACE? CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON THE POLITICAL ECONOMY
OF PEACEBUILDING
Nathan Roger
IMAGE WARFARE IN THE WAR ON TERROR
Aglaya Snetkov and Stephen Aris
THE REGIONAL DIMENSIONS TO SECURITY
Other Sides of Afghanistan
Holger Stritzel
SECURITY IN TRANSLATION
Securitization Theory and the Localization of Threat
Ali Tekin and Paul Andrew Williams
GEO-POLITICS OF THE EURO-ASIA ENERGY NEXUS
The European Union, Russia and Turkey
Aiden Warren and Ingvild Bode
GOVERNING THE USE-OF-FORCE IN INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
The Post 9/11 Challenge on International Law
New Security Challenges Series
Series Standing Order ISBN 978–0–230–00216–6 (hardback)
and ISBN 978–0–230–00217–3 (paperback)
You can receive future titles in this series as they are published by placing a standing order.
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Terrorism and Counter-
Terrorism in Africa
Fighting Insurgency from
Al Shabaab, Ansar Dine and Boko Haram
Hussein Solomon
University of the Free State, Republic of South Africa
© Hussein Solomon 2015
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2015 978-1-137-48988-3
All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this
publication may be made without written permission.
No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted
save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the
Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence
permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency,
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Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication
may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.
The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2015 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Palgrave is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has
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Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-50430-5 ISBN 978-1-137-48989-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137489890
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managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing
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A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.
Contents
Acknowledgements viii
List of Abbreviations ix
1 Understanding the Terrorist Threat in Africa and the
Limitations of the Current Counter-Terrorist Paradigm 1
2 Islam in Africa 21
3 Al Shabaab in Somalia: Between Clan and Faith 39
4 Ansar Dine in Mali: Between Tuareg Nationalism
and Islamism 67
5 Nigeria’s Boko Haram: Contesting Ethnic, Religious
and Regional Identities 85
6 Responding to Terror: An Assessment of African
Union Counter-Terrorism Strategies 105
7 Responding to Terror: An Assessment of US
Counter-Terrorism Strategies in Africa 117
Conclusion 129
Appendix: Boko Haram attacks from December 2010 to July 2014 137
Notes 139
Index 171
Acknowledgements
This book would not have been possible had I not received the sup-
port from a number of institutions and individuals. I wish to thank the
National Research Foundation as well as Dr Glen Taylor of the University
of the Free State’s Research Office for their financial support, which
allowed me to undertake foreign visits and employ a research assistant
to support my scholarly endeavours. I am deeply grateful to Prof. Theo
Neethling, Head of the Department of Political Studies and Governance,
who provided me the space to pursue my research. I also wish to thank
my postgraduate students – Ruan van der Walt, Siphesile Ndamase and
Alta Grobbelaar – for the assistance they provided to ensure this publica-
tion was realised. My gratitude to the library staff at the African Studies
Centre in Leiden, the Netherlands, for the efficient and friendly support
they provided to me during my visits there. A special word of thanks
goes to various individuals who provided me with constructive com-
ments when I presented portions of this research at conferences and
workshops both locally and internationally. Their efforts allowed me to
go back to the drawing board and improve on my initial writing.
viii
List of Abbreviations
ACSRT African Centre for the Study and Research on Terrorism
AFRICOM United States Africa Command
AMISOM African Mission in Somalia
AQIM Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb
ASF African Standby Force
ASWJ Ahlu Sunna Wal Jam’a
AU African Union
CIA Central Intelligence Agency
CISSA Committee of Intelligence and Security Services of Africa
CTS Critical Terrorism Studies
CVE Countering Violent Extremism
DRC Democratic Republic of the Congo
EACTI East African Counter-Terrorism Initiative
ECOWAS Economic Community of West African States
EUCOM European Command’s
FDLR Democratic Front for the Liberation of Rwanda
GSPC Salafist Group for Preaching and Jihad
IGAD Inter-Governmental Authority on Development
IIRO International Islamic Relief Organisation
IMN Islamic Movement of Nigeria
JEM Justice and Equality Movement
JTF Joint Military Task Force
LJM Liberation and Justice Movement
MEND Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta
MIA Islamic Movement of Azawad
MNLA Tuareg Azawad National Liberation Movement
MUJAO Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa
MWL Saudi Muslim World League
NATO North Atlantic Treaty Organization
NCP National Congress Party
OAU Organisation of African Unity (now the African Union)
PDP Peoples’ Democratic Party
PETN Pentaerythritol tetranitrate
PREACT Partnership for Regional East Africa Counter-Terrorism
PSI Pan Sahel Initiative
REC Regional Economic Community
ix
