Terrorism
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Terrorism in Africa: A bigger threat than in Europe, but much less coverage
Neil Clark / RT January 15, 2015
Are African lives worth less than the lives of people elsewhere in the world?
Last week 17 people were killed by terrorists in France. The events were shocking and quite rightly the murders were subject to unequivocal condemnation. At the same time, considerably more people were reported to have been killed by gunmen in Baga, Nigeria, with figures ranging from 150 to over 2,000.
Terrorism Rises in Africa
John Lee Anderson / The New Yorker April 3, 2015
Terrorist atrocities by Sunni Muslim extremists are on the verge of becoming the world’s white noise. Two weeks ago, there was an attack by three killers swearing allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq and al-Sham, or ISIS, against tourists visiting the Bardo National Museum in Tunis. The majority of the twenty-two victims were Westerners, mostly Christians. Two days later, another ISIS detachment bombed two Shiite mosques in Sana’a, the capital of Yemen, murdering a hundred and forty-two civilians.
Terrorism in Africa: The Imminent Threat to the United States
Thomas Joscelyn / The Long War Journal April 29, 2015
In preparing today’s testimony, I reviewed the history of al Qaeda’s plotting against the West. A number of facts demonstrate that al Qaeda’s presence in Africa has been tied to these efforts. For instance, declassified documents recovered in Osama bin Laden’s compound show that he ordered al Qaeda’s branches in Africa to select candidates capable of striking inside the U.S. Bin Laden also ordered al Qaeda’s African branches to coordinate their work with his “external operations” team, which was responsible for plotting attacks against Western interests. Some of al Qaeda’s most senior leaders, including those who have overseen al Qaeda’s planned attacks in the West, have come from Africa. Senior al Qaeda leaders embedded in Shabaab have also trained operatives to attack in Europe. I discuss this evidence in detail in the final section of my written testimony.