Africa’s Second Front
British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s high-profile initiatives have turned Africa into the frontline of the war on poverty. But radical Islamists may be making it the latest front in the war on terror. One in four suicide bombers in Iraq is now African. The United Nations recently reported that al Qaeda has set up bases ...
British Prime Minister Tony Blair's high-profile initiatives have turned Africa into the frontline of the war on poverty. But radical Islamists may be making it the latest front in the war on terror. One in four suicide bombers in Iraq is now African. The United Nations recently reported that al Qaeda has set up bases in Nigeria. Terrorist attacks within the region are also becoming more common. In June, an al Qaeda affiliate killed 15 people in Mauritania in West Africa. The United States' European Command now argues that Africa is of "growing strategic importance" in the war on terror.
British Prime Minister Tony Blair’s high-profile initiatives have turned Africa into the frontline of the war on poverty. But radical Islamists may be making it the latest front in the war on terror. One in four suicide bombers in Iraq is now African. The United Nations recently reported that al Qaeda has set up bases in Nigeria. Terrorist attacks within the region are also becoming more common. In June, an al Qaeda affiliate killed 15 people in Mauritania in West Africa. The United States’ European Command now argues that Africa is of "growing strategic importance" in the war on terror.
Concerned that faltering African states might become the next Afghanistan, the United States is building up its anti-terror presence on the continent. In June, the U.S. military unveiled the Flintlock exercise — the largest American military deployment in Africa since World War II. The anti-terror training mission, more than a year in planning, involves nine North and West African countries and all four branches of the U.S. military. The United States ultimately plans to spend $100 million a year for five years in a bid to prevent the area from becoming a terrorist haven.
Some question whether a large-scale U.S. military exercise is a good idea for such a volatile part of the world. Jennifer Cooke, an Africa expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, thinks that an American presence that is "overwhelmingly military is likely to create more suspicions than it wins friends." Indeed, the terrorists who struck in Mauritania described the attack as a "hit against the Flintlock plan put in place by the enemy of God, America, and its agents in the region." Flintlock may already be sparking a backfire.
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