ICC Note:
Across Africa’s 5/15 Window, armed Islamic insurgencies have and continue to pursue the establishment of separate Islamic states. In the East African Horn, al-Shabaab has carried out a brutal campaign to eliminate Somalia’s Christian minority in an effort to create a purely Islamic society ruled by Sharia law. In the Central African Republic, a coalition force of Islamists seized power from a weak central government, wreaked havoc on the majority Christian population, and spiraled the nation into a sectarian divide that has pitted Muslims versus Anti-Balaka militias in a still-ongoing tit-for-tat struggle. And in Nigeria, Boko Haram is now reportedly enforcing Sharia law, beheading Christian men and enslaving their widows, in its self-declared caliphate. To help Africans displaced by violent Islamic extremists, donate to ICC’s Hand of Hope—Africa Fund here, please be sure to note your donation by writing “HH-Africa” in the comment box.
09/06/2014 Nigeria (VOA) – African Islamists may be emboldened by the Islamic State’s gains in the Middle East, and local security services need to cooperate to counter the continent’s militants, African intelligence officials heard on Thursday.
African Islamist rebels like Nigeria’s Boko Haram have not made as dramatic an advance as Islamic State, which controls a swath of Syria and Iraq. They have launched attacks across Africa, though, from Niger, Mali and Nigeria in the west to Somalia and Kenya in the east.
The success of Islamic State could shape the thinking of African Islamists, said Andrew Muzonzini, Zimbabwe’s head of external intelligence and a member of the African Union’s Committee of Intelligence and Security Services of Africa [CISSA].
“Given [Islamic State’s] brutality in pursuit of its cause, it would be prudent for us to brace ourselves for a new cadre-ship of extremist fanatics,” Muzonzini said at a CISSA conference in Nairobi.
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