EFFECTS OF TERRORISM IN AFRICA

EFFECTS OF TERRORISM IN AFRICA

Terrorism is viewed as threatened or the unlawful utilization of violence against people, or property to force and intimidate societies or governments for political objectives. In most cases the unavoidable political objectives are phrased out in economic, social or religious terms. Terrorism is differentiated from ordinary law crimes in that the motivation isn't for financial gain- a differentiation important in distinguishing terrorism from other planned criminal behavior.

The effects of 11 September, 2001 terrorists’ attacks made the Western world become more and more concerned with the ‘failed states’ in the universal south. This concern also has essential implications for Africans as well as international reactions to armed insurgency
groups within the African continent. In addition, the end of Cold war had an effect on the ideologically predetermined geopolitical landscape in which the African insurgency group carried out its operations. In addition, it may have created leftist ideologies which seem to be irrelevant, but more essentially it meant the end of external backing for various armed groups. Nevertheless, the stop of Cold War had other indirect and unexpected effects on African insurgency groups, in that it led to the escalation of an illegal international market for small arms. The various factions in  the civil war of Liberia and the Revolutionary United Front within Sierra Leone, and the numerous insurgency groups in Eastern side of Congo, who came to have control over mineral rich areas such as the diamond fields, used this power to have an access to the new global market of small arms (Institute for Security studies 1).

Terrorism, specifically Islamic radicalism, presents a real threat to international and regional security. On a universal scale, the greatest threat brought about by Islamic militancy doesn't essentially lie on a temporary hold on economic and political power within a specific nation, but rather in the creation of a transnational dreadful network which has disastrous results, as seen for instance in the Tanzania and Kenya US Embassy bombings, followed by the eleventh September occurrences (Botha and Solomon 1). These two examples had an effect on Africa. Countries in Africa were utilized as a target for an action directed against an alien government. In the second example, Africans were involved directly and indirectly. These and other forms of terrorism brought about a classification between sufferers and agents of terrorism.