AFRICA?CONNECTING THE DOTS

By Michael Kraft

AFRICA�CONNECTING THE DOTS

By Michael B. Kraft

Recent press reports point to the dangers of terrorism in Africa. The White House turned down British Prime Minister Tony Blair�s efforts to double aid to that continent. A major existing U.S. aid program to Africa has bogged down.

A few key dots.

� Reports of a possible terrorist threat in Nigeria to the US. Embassy drove oil prices to a record high Friday. Nigeria is a major suppler of sweet crude oil to the United States and the temporary closings of the U.S. and British embassies drove prices to over $58 a barrel.

� Up to a fourth of the suicide bombers in Iraq are from North Africa, a senior U.S. military official said last week according to an Associated Press article from Senegal. Algeria was the source of about 20 per cent and neighboring Morocco and Tunisia provided another 5 per cent, said the official who briefed reporters in connection with a military counter terrorism training exercise with nine nations from north and western Africa last week.

� U.S. and British agents are now in Kenya tracking members of two al-Qaeda-linked groups, according to a senior Kenyan official, as reported by AFP. The operatives reportedly are members of Al-Ittihad Al A-Islamiya and Al-Takfir Wal-Hijira and crossed into Kenya from Somalia land.

� �Al Qaeda is assessing local groups for franchising opportunities,� I�m quite concerned about that,� said Maj. Gen, Richard Zahner, chief intelligence officer for the European Command, as quoted by the New York Times
(June 9).

And there were these developments on the Washington front.

� The House Appropriations Committee last week cut $1.25 billion from the Administration�s $3 billion FY 06 request for the Millennium Challenge Grant, the land mark program intended to provide stepped-up foreign assistance to countries that make economic and political reforms.

� The leaders of five African nations in the program met with President Bush last week and complained of slow progress in the provision of the funds. Only about $325 million of the proposed $5 billion plan has been obligated to date. President Bush said the Administration will work harder and faster to disburse the funds.
Paul Applegarth, chief executive of the fund resigned.

� President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair agreed earlier this month to a plan for the Summit 8 to forgive billions of dollars of debts owed by African nations but the President turned down the British leader�s proposal to double the level of new aid.

� Baroness Caroline Cox, a British specialist on Islam, told a Heritage Foundation talk last week that in some parts of Nigeria and other places in Africa, health clinics sponsored by Islamic groups are telling local Africans that they have to covert to Islam in order to get treatment. Farmers seeking small loans were also told they had to convert. She described the situation as similar to Egypt where radical Islamist terrorist groups had provided health and other social services as part of their struggle against the Mubark government.

Providing training exercises and other specific counter-terrorism assistance to developing countries in Africa and elsewhere is a necessary and a good step. But these are short term measures, and often under funded. Africa is extremely vulnerable to being used as a venue for terrorist attacks because of its weak governments, porous borders easily crossed by terrorist operatives and widespread corruption. Border guards and other low level officials are susceptible to being bribed because of poor and sporadic pay. In some regions of West and East Africa there are substantial numbers of Muslims, some of whom feel disaffected, providing potential recruiting grounds and cover for terrorist operatives such as those who conducted the 1998 attacks against the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania.

To their credit, Africans, at least those from the sub-Sahara do not normally engage in or glorify suicide bombings, despite those apologists who claim such tactics are the result of poverty and desperation. Many Africans are as desperately poor a people as you can find, except perhaps in Haiti. While there are some indigenous terrorist groups, such as the Lords Resistance Army in Uganda, the major problem in the continent as a whole stems from terrorists groups such as Al-Qaeda using vulnerable countries suffering from weak governments to strike at western targets. In the process, as shown in the 1998 East Africa embassy bombings, the attacks killed or injured large numbers of Africans.

To have any hopes of strengthening governments, the rule of law and curbing the rampant corruption, there needs to be a large and long term commitment of foreign assistance by the U.S. and other donor countries. Improving the legal system and the skills of the investigators in coping with ordinary crime also develops capabilities for dealing with terrorist threats. Improving the school and medical services is a worth-while goal in itself, and it also minimizes the dangers that radical groups can win recruits by filling the existing vacuum.

In short, if we are going to be serious about fighting the terrorism threat, we must think long term. We need to provide over a long period of time serious and focused assistance to help the vulnerable countries strengthen their overall government structure, economies and education systems, not just the capabilities of a relatively few law enforcement or military units. As the surge in oil prices because of the Nigeria terrorist alerts showed, it is in our own self interest. We must connect the dots.

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