Routledge Handbook of Counterterrorism and Counterinsurgency in Africa

Usman A. Tar, Usman A. Tar

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781351271905
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Politica e relazioni internazionali
• Subtopic: Politica africana

This book illustrates how Africa's defence and security domains have been radically altered by drastic changes in world politics and local ramifications.

First, the contributions of numerous authors highlight the transnational dimensions of counterterrorism and counterinsurgency in Africa and reveal the roles played by African states and regional organisations in the global war on terror. Second, the volume critically evaluates the emerging regional architectures of countering terrorism, insurgency, and organised violence on the continent through the African Union Counterterrorism Framework (AU-CTF) and Regional Security Complexes (RSC). Third, the book sheds light on the counterterrorism and counterinsurgency (CT-COIN) structures and mechanisms established by specific African states to contain, degrade, and eliminate terrorism, insurgency, and organised violence on the continent, particularly the successes, constraints, and challenges of the emerging CT-COIN mechanisms. Finally, the volume highlights the entry of non-state actors – such as civil society, volunteer groups, private security companies, and defence contractors – into the theatre of counterterrorism and counterinsurgency in Africa through volunteerism, community support for state-led CT-COIN Operations, and civil-military cooperation (CIMIC).

This book will be of use to students and scholars of security studies, African studies, international relations, and terrorism studies, and to practitioners of development, defence, security, and strategy.

Part I

Conceptual perspectives

1

Introduction

The frontiers of counterterrorism and counterinsurgency in Africa

Usman A. Tar

Introduction

Africa has acquired an ignoble status as “ground zero” in the global resurgence of violent extremism (VE), and an active front in countering violent extremism (CVE). However, Africa is not an isolated domain in the concerted effort to address the symptoms and root causes of VE; it is part and parcel of a global effort at anti-terrorism. A global coalition has emerged to coalesce international efforts to provide collective security against transnational crimes and terrorist activities. In Africa, a plethora of Violent Non-State Actors (VNSAs) – for example Al-Shabaab, Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb, Boko Haram, Ansaaru Deen and Lord’s Resistance Army – have challenged the legitimacy and authority of the state, and created human carnage and loss of life and properties, while also engaging the local state and its armed forces in physical combat. On the other hand, virtual criminality and “ungoverned spaces” have further added a layer of burden and complexity on states’ ability to deal with these emerging security challenges. Thus, several anti-terror legislation and strategies have been developed by states, individually, bilaterally and multilaterally, to contain or curtail these threats. At the same time, the state deploys enormous resources to contain the security challenges. However, most African states are bedevilled by “crisis of legitimacy” as a result of poor governance, imprudent management of resources, official corruption, and failure in welfare provisioning. Thus, a number of states have failed to degrade or defeat insurgency and terrorism in their domains. At the same time, the conventional security approach of the state in managing the challenge is both inadequate and overstretched. Armed insurgents and terror organisations have amassed vast instruments of warfare and are challenging the legitimacy and integrity of the state. Indeed, in some states such as Somalia, Nigeria, Uganda, and Kenya, terrorist organisations have curved “ungoverned spaces” which stand out as pockets of “terror(ist) haven” and a groundswell for violence threatening national, regional, and global security. For instance, in the North-Eastern part of Nigeria, and pockets of surrounding regions and states, there is a virtual existence of garrison spaces in which coercion from state and violence from insurgent terrorisms together haunt the security of the citizens. Consequently, massive displacement of the citizens from their places of habitation and sources of livelihood pose multiple challenges to the state and humanitarian community. Beyond terrorist insurgency in the North East of Nigeria, there is also the issue of kidnapping for ransom, increase in the spate of armed robbery, and general criminality that further compound the scourges of insecurity. Across Africa and the world, terrorism, insurgency, and other forms of security challenges are increasing in space, number, and intensity. States’ commitment to physical, regime and human securities have become the core preoccupations of governments all over the world, including Africa.

Africa is often portrayed as a breeding ground for terrorism, insurgency, and militancy. Since 9/11, the global community has focused attention on, and channelled resources to, Africa as a peculiar front for the so-called “Global War on Terror” (GWT). The continent has witnessed significant in-flow of Security Sector Assistance (SFA) from the international community in terms of boosting the capacity of the Africa Union (AU), Regional Economic Co-operations (RECs), and security and bureaucratic apparatus of the various individual states to counterterrorism, insurgency, and organised violence in the region. This book illustrates how Africa’s defence and security environments have been radically altered by drastic changes in world politics and local ramifications. Recent events – such as the end of the Cold War in 1990, and the terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre on 11 September 2001 – have unleashed new developments on Africa’s precarious development and security. Amidst the severe global economic slowdown, majority of African countries are largely plagued by poor economic performance in terms of GDP, GNP, standard and quality of living, industrial output, economic transparency and governance index, etc. Today, in the majority of African countries, large swathes of the population survive on less than two dollars a day. African countries are bedevilled by crises of development and security as evidenced by a plethora of “civil wars” across the continent, while violent extremism, fundamentalism, terrorism and insurgency have exacerbated exponentially. Globalisation is argued to have further weakened the African state and provided an enabling environment for the efflorescence of a bevvy of “virtual security risks” such as cyber-terrorism, cybercrime, perverse effects of new media, and social networking. In addition, globalisation has emboldened terror organisations to frontally confront the local state, overwhelm its armed forces, usurp territory, and literally carve out “ungoverned spaces” (Tar, 2017a, 2017b)

The Handbook distinctly illustrates how African states have developed new structures for countering terrorism, insurgency, and organised violence on the continent, as well as showing how they have developed unilateral, bilateral, and multilateral platforms for countering organised and transnational violence. The global support for countering terrorism in Africa appears to be driven by the enlightened motives by the concerned “developed” countries of the global security community to come to the aid of weak African states as a means of making the continent more secure, better governed, and immune from harbouring terrorist groups (Chapters 12–19). The book also shows the efflorescence of new and improvised, seemingly independent, regional architectures for counterterrorism. Examples include the AU’s Peace and Security Commission as well as a host of similar initiatives in ECOWAS, SADC, IGAD, COMESA and Maghreb Union, that have led to a new regional architecture for defence and security in the continent (Chapters 20–25). Beyond the strengthening of existing RECs, there are attempts to build newer regional platforms – for instance, in the Lake Chad Basin, which encompasses Western and Central African regions, the formation of the Joint Multinational Task Forces (MNJTF) under the aegis of the Lake Chad Basin Commission (LCBC). LCBC was formed in 1968 to manage the aquatic resources of the Lake Chad but eventually expanded in 1998 to deal with security issues and herald the formation of a collective security framework to confront the transnationalisation of the Boko Haram insurgency in the region (Chapters 25 and 37). The MNJTF was developed to pool together economic and security resources under a novel collective security arrangement to ensure intelligence fusion and coordination of military strategy to confront insurgency and criminality. In addition to regional architecture, there has been a remarkable improvement in the existing municipal strategies for counterterrorism through enhanced and fast-track legislation, infrastructure development, and rejigging of national armed forces’ standard operating procedures for countering terrorism and insurgencies at the levels national grand norm, strategy, operations, and tactics. Thus, this volume reveals that African states and regional organisations constitute formidable building blocks for the emerging structures for CT-COIN in Africa. Beyond the regional and national efforts, there appears to be a partnership for security through active participation of civil society organisations and humanitarian agencies (Chapters 11 and 35), as well as, in some particular contexts such as in Nigeria, the emergence of civilian tasks forces to complement the efforts of government forces. As both Nwonsu and Auwal reveal in this Handbook, realising the limits of the conventional security provisioning and management, groups within society organize, often with the support of the state, provide volunteer networks for complementary roles that are useful to create a broad security architecture in the state (Chapters 37 and 41). This development draws in civil society and volunteerism into security discourse in at least two senses. First, civil society organisations complement the state as a popular front for CT-COIN and, therefore, a layer of protection against destructive forces. The second point questions security volunteerism of civic groups because civil society bears an essence which questions possible use of coercion in its participation in vigilante groups. Thus, there is a need to examine the dynamic interaction of state and civil society in the containment of insurgency and other security challenges in Africa.

In essence, the Handbook highlights a number of novel trends on CT-COIN in Africa. First, it critically highlights the transnational dimensions of counterterrorism and counterinsurgency in Africa, and reveals the roles played by African states and regional organisations in the global war on terror. Second, the volume critically evaluates the emerging regional architecture of countering terrorism and insurgency and organised violence on the continent through the African Union Counterterrorism Framework (AU-CTF) and Regional Security Complexes (RSCs). Third, the volume distinctly illustrates the CT-COIN structures and mechanisms established by specific African states to contain, degrade, and eliminate terrorism, insurgency, and organised violence on the continent, particularly highlighting the successes, constraints and challenges of these emerging CT-COIN mechanisms. Finally, the volume highlights the entry of non-state actors – such as civil society, citizens’ volunteer groups, private security companies, and defence contractors – into the theatre of CT-COIN in Africa through volunteerism, community support for state-led CT-COIN Operations, and civil-military cooperation (CIMIC).

The frontiers of CT-COIN in Africa – emerging threats and regional security architectures

Conceptual and contextual contours

Terrorism, insurgency, and CT-COIN are subject to fierce contestations at both conceptual and contextual levels. The conceptual parameters of the debate are thoroughly explored in Chapters 2–11 and will not be discussed here. However, the following analytic synopsis can be offered: first, current conceptualisations are steeped in abstract definitions and contestations, with little attention on local context in Africa. Second, most conceptual analyses are skewed in terms of understanding and addressing the root causes of insurgency/terrorism, especially in Africa. Clearly, Africa is seen as a volatile but fertile ground for terrorism/insurgency, as well as a marginal player in the “global war on terror”. Thus, western approaches to countering violent extremism and insurgencies, especially the models of the USA and her allies, appear to be designer models that are aimed at meeting the strategic objectives of the western powers: local dynamics and “national interests” of African states are often placed in the back burner. Finally, the conceptual literature is clearly driven by western scholars and policymakers based on their policy agenda. There is an acute need to place the African experience and “cultural relativity” on the drawing board. It is anticipated that this Handbook will provide the much-needed perspectives on how Africa is coping with the challenges of terrorism, insurgency, and CT-COIN based on thorough utilisation of empirical data on local experiences and conjectures.

Africa is often painted, especially in western intelligence and security communities, as the fault line or “ground zero” in the global effort to contain the scourges of hunger and instability. Africa’s poor governance and developmental profile support the bleak depiction of the continent: since achieving independence in the 1960s only a few African countries have been able to overcome the precipitous hangover of inherited colonial hangovers – particularly, economic decline and political instability superintended by a praetorian elite that is willing to steal or compromise the national patrimony to nourish its self-centred interest. At the same, while dealing with global aspersions, Africa is also undergoing a phenomenal transformation in regional security and, in particular, is developing a regional architecture for peace and security.

This volume is predicated on – but also deviates from – a number of existing conceptual and contextual literature in the field. A key focus, in this volume, is the emerging architecture for counterterrorism and counterinsurgency in Africa. A key early intervention, perhaps, is Uniting Africa: Building Regional Peace and Security Systems by Francis (2006) which leads th...