Terrorist activities in Africa are increasing, a counterterrorism conference in Kyalami, north of Johannesburg, heard on Tuesday.
The threat is mainly from global terrorist groups seeking refuge, recruits and funds, said David Radcliffe, regional director for Africa in the office of the United States Secretary of Defence.
He said Africa is attractive to terrorists because it offers space — both actual and virtual — and countries with disenfranchised, frustrated populaces ripe for recruitment. There are also opportunities for fundraising through sympathisers or through exploitation of natural resources, including oil and diamonds.
”They need the space to train, they need the space to operate, they need the space to recruit. They a need a refuge they can go to with reasonable certainty that they are not going to be targeted by military forces,” said Radcliffe.
”It’s all available here,” he said, emphasising that he was expressing personal views rather than those of the US government.
Africa is vulnerable because of the ease with which terrorists can establish new identities and procure documents that would enable travel without raising suspicion.
The continent is not immune to attack either. The conventional wisdom that terrorists do not attack within the countries harbouring them no longer holds true, said Radcliffe.
This is evidenced by the bombings of US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam in 1998, in which more Africans died than the Americans targeted.
Targets in Africa include embassies and multinational companies and African Union and United Nations missions. African economies are particularly at risk, he said.
Terrorist attacks impacting the rest of the world would in turn impact ”in dramatic form” on Africa.
Countries without diversified economies and those dependent on tourism could face crippling financial problems if terrorists attacked key industries and infrastructure.
In the African context, attention also had to be paid to small groups with limited goals and objectives as they could have as large a negative impact on peace and security as the global networks, said Radcliffe.
It is not necessary to kill many people to create the impression that a country is not safe, he said.
”It only takes a handful of terrorists to cause major disruptions.”
What is certain is that as particular threats are addressed, terrorists will adapt to overcome the new obstacles.
”These adaptations are what we need to be concerned about,” he said.
Terrorists are intelligent, can see what the authorities are doing and monitor media reports.
If governments are serious about addressing the threat of terrorism, they will coordinate their approaches to their security, legal, financial, development and health care systems.
They also have to address corruption as a growing problem when it comes to terrorism.
All it took is an official to look the other way or to wrongly issue a passport to give an opportunity to terrorists, said Radcliffe.
The basic foundations have to be built in the law enforcement and financial sectors.
”The major breakthroughs in combating terrorism are going to be from that alert border security guard that sees something suspicious about the person coming through, or the transaction that doesn’t hold up to scrutiny,” said Radcliffe.
”It is going to be at the frontline where people see something because of their training and professionalism,” he said.
”It’s all about good governance.”
In July, Jane’s World Insurgency and Terrorism/Military Balance listed People Against Gangsterism and Drugs (Pagad) and remnants of extreme right-wing groups as the armed groups in South Africa.
But it noted that: ”As a terrorist threat, both of these have diminished; organised criminal organisations are a security concern.”
Institute for Security Studies executive director Jakkie Cilliers told the conference that UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s ”comprehensive strategy against terrorism” involved dissuading people from resorting to terrorism, denying terrorists access to funds and materials, deterring states from sponsoring terrorism, developing state capacity to defeat terrorism and defending human rights.
He pointed out that international terrorism is not the most important global security challenge for Africa and cannot be deal with in isolation from poverty, HIV/Aids and environmental degradation through climate change. — Sapa