negative impacts that Jihad has registered in sub Saharan Africa

negative impacts that Jihad has registered in sub Saharan Africa

Africa is mostly endowed with developing countries. One of the most outstanding challenges in Africa is terrorism. These unwelcomed activities always consume a lot of time as countries focus on taming the tide of terror threaten. Many terrorism activities have been geared by unemployment, poverty, financial embarrassments, monetary, debasement, absence of education and political minimization among others. Basically many African vast countries is filled with unemployed and poor people. Due to lack of income earning activities, a big population has indulged in unwelcomed activities such as terrorism. Terrorism activities have been highly vivid in sub Saharan Africa. This essay clearly explains the fundamental causes of terrorism in sub Saharan Africa. The paper stipulates the negative impacts that Jihad has registered in sub Saharan Africa.

BIRTH RATE

The Africa   continent has extremely high birthrate. The   growing towns are currently filled with massive numbers of unemployed, poorly educated individuals in the real sense these turn to be the breeding grounds for crime and terrorism. Extremists get chance to initiate people to their sundry causes, people who are desperate to improve their lot in life. There is possibility of combating terrorism in this region by lowering birth rate by family planning program for this is happening in Kenya and South Africa (Azam et al, 376).

A CONTINENT SATURATED WITH WEAPONS

Much of Africa is awash with weapons. Rocket-propelled grenade launchers, 9mm pistols, and of course the ubiquitous AK-47, can often be purchased at bazaars. Ethiopian soldiers who met massive armed resistance when they entered Mogadishu can testify to the failure of the bans. The never-ending arms trafficking has resulted in criminal gangs, insurgencies, and terrorists having a ready supply of firepower to kidnap foreign oil executives, abduct children to become soldiers, or blow up American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, as happened in 1998(Shaw & Mark,57). Most poor and unemployed people carry out this business.

The intensity of conflicts is being ratcheted upwards, with weapons dealers willing to sell to both sides being the main ones to profit from the cycle of violence. For terrorists and insurgents, they use it to help finance their organization and it provides them with ready access through reliable suppliers to weapons for their own use. Well-financed and well-armed, it is no wonder these organizations have a certain appeal to disenfranchised youths looking not only to belong somewhere, but to fight back every power (Alberto, 134). There will be no removing the weapons from Africa. The task would be impossible. Instead they will stay, and even multiply in number, and continue to offer to any disgruntled young man a chance for revenge against, say, an imperialist power or multinational company that has degraded the land, made a profit from oil, and not provided a fair share of the money to the neediest people.

PEACE AS A CAUSE OF WAR

Having ongoing border disputes   sometimes work to a government’s advantage providing   a useful distraction from the corruption and incompetence of a country’s leaders. Making peace eradicates such hindrances and the willingness not to criticize, and then the people can turn their attention to what is trending in the mother country (Azam et al, 300). This act was witnessed between Somalia and Ethiopia. By making peace with Ethiopia, a long-time enemy of Somalia, the Somalians were fascinated by their own government, eventually overthrowing the long-time dictator Siad Barre (Alberto, 78).

TRIBALISM VERSUS DEMOCRACY

In Africa, allegiance is often to the ethnic group, not the nation. Scratch the surface of Rwandan society and it is possible still to find some of the animosity between the Hutus and Tutsis that led to the 1994 genocide, despite government attempts to define all the population as “Rwandans” (Alberto, 57). That animosity is still being played out in the North and South Kivu provinces of Eastern Congo, where the Hutu Interahamwe forces and the Tutsi rebel forces under Laurent Nkunda continue to fight. The allegiance to ethnicity instead of nation is written in the blood of hundreds of thousands of Tutsis and the moderate Hutus who sympathized with them. With an allegiance to an ethnic group instead of the state, transparent governance is prevented since the winning groups take all the chances. These eventually lead to violence.

A CULTURE OF VIOLENCE

In Africa Violence is   sometimes seen as the only way to address grievances when all other methods have failed .It will not be easy to break the mindset of so many people who have witnessed and   participated in the many brutal acts that have come to characterize certain regions of Africa (Effeh, 164). A whole generation may have to die off before progress can be made in bringing peace, or at least a positive attitude towards peace, to the next generation before they too become indoctrinated by a culture of violence.

VESTED INTERESTS IN CONFLICTS

Military leaders in some African nations maintain armies of ghost soldiers, essentially lists of people who either do not exist or are not in the army, in order to obtain the salaries of these pretend combatants. Having an ongoing conflict helps justify large armies, and as long as no one looks too hard, corrupt officers will continue to reap the benefits of imaginary forces. After nearly two decades, the Ugandan army has been unable to defeat the Lord’s Resistance Army in the northern part of that country (Shaw, 68). Certainly having ghost soldiers on its rolls did not help the Ugandan army’s fighting capabilities.

POOR GOVERNANCE IN AFRICA

African nations run the range from having little or no government, as in Somalia, to true democracies, as in South Africa. In between these two extremes are a variety of governments, often dictatorships masquerading as a democracy that is inefficient and corrupt. Such governments facilitate outstanding anarchy to form foundations in the governance. Following independence from colonial rule these nations burst upon the scene with people anxious to fulfill their dream of choosing their own destinies. Unfortunately, many of these people never had a chance to fulfill that dream, as many African governments became long-term, one-man rule, frequently staying in power through corruption, intimidation, or both(Effeh, 166).

AIDS CAN LEAD TO TERRORISM

AIDS is a disease that has devastated the continent, leaving millions of people dead. At first glance one might think that, despite the tragedy of the disease killing so many; perhaps by decreasing population pressures it will decrease competition for resources and hence lead to fewer people turning toward terrorism to try to get their share. The reality is quite different. In 2006, there were 12 million AIDS orphans in Sub-Saharan Africa. By 2010, it is estimated that the number will have risen to 18.4 million, approximately 15 to 20 percent of the population of some countries (Hunter & Susan, 683). These children, not as productive as their parents were on the farms, hungry and alone, will look for ways to ameliorate their misery.

THE CURSE OF RESOURCES

Africa’s tremendous riches from regular assets have been, all things considered, more revile than gift. Wars have been battled in the Democratic Republic of the Congo over coltan, an important mineral used to make electronic components in items such as cell phones and PCs. Notorious “blood precious stones” have powered clashes, which have brought about incalculable regular folks dead or disfigured in Angola, Côte d’Ivoire and different countries. At that point there is oil, an asset that has turned out to be verging on synonymous on the landmass with debasement, poor administration and granulating destitution for the masses, while a little gathering at the top amasses colossal riches (Effeh, 163).

COMBATING TERRORISIM IN AFRICA

America’s solution, in part, to combat the growing threat of terrorism in Africa, is to +

create a new military command focused on the continent: AFRICOM. Not just having combat capabilities, this force will also provide significant humanitarian relief; helping to win over the local populace one alternative might be the creation of an educational adjunct to AFRICOM, to spearhead the command’s efforts on the continent (Azam et al, 366).. The Marshall Center’s mission   create a more stable security environment by advancing defense institutions    promoting active, peaceful engagement; and enhancing enduring partnerships among the nations of America, Europe and Eurasia    Such a relatively low-cost undertaking, at least in comparison to establishing bases in Africa, could lead to enhanced understanding between the United States and African nations, paving the way for an increased number of joint activities.

In conclusion in most African nations there is financial hardship, poverty, unemployment, absence of education,   political minimization and dispossession of the masses. Those play a major role in facilitating terrorism in the region. To curb these activities strategies have been put in place to    minimize terrorism and fear in Africa. In all actuality the high poverty levels   confronting Africa are expanding their unsettling against the decision world class. To keep nations from grasping psychological warfare or any type of political brutality, the bogs of destitution, unemployment, lack of education, and defilement must be depleted. We should industrialize by building and extending our vitality foundations to exploit a tremendous Africans undiscovered characteristic asset. We should build exchange, venture and advance financial development. We should reinforce state organizations to convey better, proficient and great open products to the nationals. Furthermore, we should at all cost battle to end endemic debasement in the nation (Alberto, 140). Without advancement on these fronts we ought to expect the universal fellowship of fear gatherings  made up of Al Qaeda, AQIM, Boko Haram, Ansaru, MUJWA, ISIS and future such foes  to penetrate groups in Africa to enroll and radicalize the adolescent to take part in neighborhood or worldwide psychological warfare.

Works Cited

Hunter, Susan S. “Orphans as a window on the AIDS epidemic in sub-Saharan Africa: Initial       results and implications of a study in Uganda.” Social Science & Medicine 31.6 (2010): 681-690.

Effeh, Ubong E. “Sub-Saharan Africa: A case study on how not to realize economic, social and    cultural rights, and a proposal for change.” Nw. Univ. J. Int’l Hum. Rts. 3 (2015): i.

Azam, Jean-Paul, and Véronique Thelen. “The roles of foreign aid and education in the war on     terror.” Public Choice 135.3-4 (2009): 375-397.

Alberto. Poverty,  political freedom, and the roots of terrorism. No. w10859. National        Bureau             of Economic Research, 2014.

Shaw, Mark “The political economy of crime and conflict in sub Saharan Africa.” South African    Journal of International Affairs 8.2 (2011): 57-69.