Terrorist-related violence in Africa continues to soar. In an illustration of the point, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic terrorist violence exploded exponentially in West Africa and the Sahel. An important series of questions needs to be asked. When did subnational and transnational terrorism develop as a problem for regional instability? What regions are most vulnerable to terrorism? What terrorist groups, subnational and transnational, are responsible for the increasing violence and instability across the continent? Finally, another question needs to be addressed: What are the available local solutions to contain and eventually eradicate terrorism in Africa?
This course examines a host of internal variables (poverty, state weakness, ungoverned spaces and governmental corruption, and political terrorism) and external variables (the export of Political Islam and the movement of external terrorist groups to the region) that have paved the way for the expansion of terrorism and terrorist groups into East, West, and North Africa.
