Africa's Counterterror Initiative
By Douglas Farah
The Washington Post has an interesting front-page story today on the difficulties in training sub-Saharan African forces in counter-terror strategies, and the pitfalls this presents for the other goal--democratization--that has been stated as necessary to fight terrorism. What are the tradeoffs in training troops whose primary loyalty will be to an abusive president and his small ethnic group, as is the case in Chad, with president Deby, who has not a democratic bone in his body? Will the Chadian troops (and those in surrounding nations such as Niger, Mali, Maurtiania) actually get better at patrolling their borders and facing the growing threat of armed Islamic groups in the region? Or will they focus their new-found skills on cracking down on internal dissent, patrolling the capital and generally becoming slightly more sophisticated in their repression?
These are complicated questions that need to be thought about and addressed as Africa becomes ever more relevant in the counterterror efforts. There is no doubt that sub-Saharan Africa is an increasingly attractive recruitment ground for al Qaeda and affiliated groups such as the Algerian Salafist Group for Call and Combat and the "al Qaeda in Nigeria" cells that appear to have been planning to attack U.S. targets in Lagos and Abuja. African are also appearing in Iraq and elsewhere in the jihadi struggles.
What are acceptable tradeoffs between two vastly different goals and approaches in combatting the spread of terror, or armed groups, in states that hover on the brink of disintegration and failure? To read the rest of the blog, go here.
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