Al Qaeda and Affiliates Gear Up in Africa

By Douglas Farah

The NEFA Foundation has released several new videos that show how much emphasis al Qaeda and its affiliates are placing on Africa, as well as the growing ability to plug into the radical Islamist propaganda machine, which keeps churning out its hate-laced videos in an effort to attract new recruits.

The most interesting are these videos of the training camps in Somalia and the English-language videos.

Islamists operating in Somalia, some have repeatedly argued, are largely an indigenous group with few real ties to al Qaeda central or broader militant movements. These videos, and the accompanying texts of the statements show that, while that may have been true in the past, it certainly is not now.

Somalia is attempting to become the new Afghanistan on the African continent, and perhaps has already achieved that goal.

The conditions are favorable. Chaos, no government to speak of, a large pool of potential recruits, anger at the current situation and lack of significant international response, and established veterans to lead the movement who have ties to the al Qaeda core.

The fact that the Ethiopian troops and modest peacekeeping mission have not succeeded in establishing an functioning government is testament to the group's strength (and to the government's weakness.)

Al Qaeda has made no secret of its desire to open as many new fronts as possible, in the belief that it can bleed the rest of the world into submission. With combatants leaving Iraq, Afghanistan and Somalia have become the new points of concentration.

The footage includes scenes of mujahideen recruits practicing using automatic weapons, RPGs, and anti-tank weapons—all under the watchful eyes of such instructors as Shebaab military chief Shaykh Mukhtar Robow (a.k.a. Abu Mansuur) and FBI Most Wanted terrorist suspect Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan. The video also shows recruits receiving lessons in the fabrication of explosives and advanced urban warfare/assault tactics. My full blog is here.

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