The world is too busy with other matters. Besides, too much attention to this would be “Islamophobic.”
“At UN, African Leaders Say Terrorists Target Continent, Especially Sahel,” Associated Press, March 28, 2023:
African nations called on the world Tuesday to pay attention to how terrorism targeted their continent, particularly its Sahel region, telling the United Nations Security Council that Africans made up nearly half the world’s terror attack victims.
Using his country’s bully pulpit as Security Council chair for March, Mozambique President Filipe Nyusi told the council that “though terrorism is a global threat, the situation in Africa remains more critical.”
His words were echoed by a series of ambassadors from African countries who discussed terror groups’ threats to their nations.
One global terrorism index shows that 48% of terror victims last year were African, Nyusi said, “and the Sahel region is the new epicenter of terrorist attacks.” Many speakers said they were deeply concerned by terror groups’ operations in the vast, semi-arid expanse below the Sahara Desert.
According to the U.N., the countries of the Sahel include Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, The Gambia, Guinea Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Senegal. The latest Global Terrorism Index says the number of terror victims has risen 2,000% in the past 15 years, and it ranks Burkina Faso first in the region.
“The situation in Africa is especially concerning,” Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the council. “Despair, poverty, hunger, lack of basic services, unemployment and unconstitutional changes in government continue to lay fertile ground. … I am deeply concerned by the gains terrorist groups are making in the Sahel and elsewhere.”
Mozambique’s Islamist extremist insurgency, which started in October 2017, is blamed for the deaths of more than 3,000 people and for displacing an estimated 900,000 people. In March 2021 the rebel violence forced the France-based firm TotalEnergies to put on hold its $20 billion liquefied natural gas project in the northeast. TotalEnergies invoked force majeure after the insurgents attacked the town of Palma, very near the gas project.
Palma was later recaptured by Mozambican and Rwandan forces, and the government has urged TotalEnergies to resume work on the gas project.
While gains have been made by Mozambique’s armed forces and its regional allies, the rebels are still capable of carrying out lethal attacks, including on the main north-south road that links the city of Pemba with the gas project in Palma.
“Mozambique has been engaged in countering terrorism with some success,” Nyusi said, “thanks to a combination of internal efforts and the support from partners.”…
somehistory says
It seems guterres named all of the usual *reasons* for the terrorism. But he left out the most important reason, the *real* reason; he didn’t mention islam. He didn’t make clear that the terrorists are mozlum.
The “poor” and “unemployed,’ the “hungry” and those feeling “despair” are the ones guilty of murder. Murder of some people who are fishing; some who are tending their crops, some who are gathering edibles; some who are simply sleeping; and some who are attending church.
These “poor, unemployed, hungry people” run their cattle over the crops, burn down houses, carry machetes with which they murder the young and old, kidnap and hold many for ransom, and ride in on their motorcycles, guns blazing, because they feel so much “despair.”
The “world” doesn’t care because most of the victims are Christian and the murderers are mozlum. Christians are, as Jesus said they would be, “hated by the world,” while mozlums are *special* and no one can criticize them for their actions of *self-improvement. *
࿗Infidel࿘ says
Wonder how many of these African leaders are actually cognizant of how compatible these jihadist groups are w/ Boko Haram, Allied Democratic Front and so on? Many, if not most of them are muslims, so they don’t have the same excuse that Western politicians have
At least countries like Mozambique should just crack down and ban islam altogether, while it still doesn’t have the numbers to resist. Countries like Burkina Faso, Mali, Mauritania and even Nigeria are probably lost at this point
PMK says
Infidel,
The countries you list as ‘probably lost’ are also OIC member states. It’s a safe bet that 99.4% of the terrorists are Muslim. It’s hard to see how Mozambique can ‘crack down and ban Islam altogether’ when it is also an OIC state.
࿗Infidel࿘ says
PMK
Some members of the OIC are only there for the sake of membership of a club. There are about 7 OIC members that are muslim minority countries – countries where <20% of the population is muslim. They are Guyana, Gabon, Uganda, Togo, Suriname, Mozambique and Cameroon. Mozambique's muslim population is still 18%, which is still controllable by them. Also, these 7 countries ought to leave the OIC: don't see what's in it for them
Aside from them, Benin, Ivory Coast and Guinea-Bissau have muslim populations b/w 20-50%. They may be muslim plurality countries, for all I know
PMK says
Many of these states, including Mozambique, are OIC members. Their terrorism is home-grown. Let them fight it themselves. They’re sovereign nations. None of the European ‘colonial powers’ brought them Islam. Islamic terrorism is their problem, not ours.
Some African OIC member states: Mali, Mauritania, Niger, Gambia, Uganda, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Mozambique.
If Mozambique is making progress against terrorism, maybe they can work with these other countries.
Billy Corr says
The sad fact, and a fact which has not escaped perceptive observers, is that Islamic militancy is arguably strongest in countries with rapid population growth and – in consequence – overcrowded towns, sprawling shanty-towns, hospitals and maternity wards bursting at the seams, few employment prospects and grinding food insecurity
https://www.cia.gov/the-world-factbook/field/population-growth-rate/country-comparison
OLD GUY says
Coming to America.