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Major Muslim Countries of Africa
|
African Country |
Muslim Population |
Muslim Presence |
|
Egypt |
70,530,237 |
91% |
|
Nigeria |
64,385,994 |
50% |
|
Ethiopia |
37,533,500 |
50% |
|
Algeria |
32,999,883 |
99% |
|
Morocco |
32,300,410 |
99% |
|
Sudan |
26,121,865 |
65% |
|
Tanzania |
12,868,224 |
35% |
|
Mali |
11,062,376 |
90% |
|
Niger |
10,499,343 |
90% |
|
Senegal |
10,459,222 |
94% |
|
Tunisia |
9,974,201 |
99% |
|
Somalia |
8,548,670 |
100% |
|
Guinea |
8,047,686 |
85% |
|
Burkina Faso |
7,449,626 |
52% |
|
Côte
d'Ivoire |
6,677,043 |
39% |
|
Congo |
6,008,500 |
10% |
|
Libya |
5,592,596 |
97% |
|
Chad |
5,306,266 |
54% |
|
Uganda |
4,090,422 |
15% |
|
Mozambique |
3,881,340 |
20% |
|
Sierra Leone |
3,610,585 |
60% |
|
Ghana |
3,364,776 |
16% |
|
Cameroon |
3,276,001 |
20% |
|
Mauritania |
3,083,772 |
99% |
|
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Africa's
Terrorist Safe Havens and Hotbeds |
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Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations have hidden
effectively in various African states (including
Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda,
South Africa, Cote D'Ivoire, Mauritania, Sudan, and
elsewhere), where they planned, financed, trained for,
and successfully executed terrorist operations against
American and allied targets. |
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Egypt
Though not a safe haven for terrorism it is one of
the hottest of hot spots in Africa where Islamic
extreme fundamentalists has a rich and strong history
of terrorism acts and operations. A dislike for
Western influence and a loss to Israel in the 1967 War
resulted in the breeding grounds for militant groups
that sought to change the political atmosphere. With
the largest Muslim population on the continent it is
only natural that large numbers of jihadists and
terrorist originate from Egypt. In
the early 1990s there was quite
intensive terrorist activity in different parts of
Egypt in almost all of the major cities, particularly
Cairo. And it was not directed only at government
buildings, or the police or the military. But to make
a statement, the terrorists would place bombs in front
of banks. The terrorists would try to target public
areas where they would get a lot of coverage.
As it peaked,
acts were directed towards the tourist industry,
because that was the easiest way to get the message
covered abroad, by targeting tourists.
Many of these groups are now part of the Al Qaeda
network. |
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Sudan In
addition to being the location of the recent African
human rights disaster where thousands upon thousands
are murdered and others are forced to seek refuge in
other parts of Africa creating a whole new problem
for the host state that takes them in, Sudan has
served as a sanctuary and staging ground for al Qaeda
and other global terrorist organizations. Its radical
Islamist government is identified by the United States
as a state sponsor of terrorism. Bin
Laden had moved to Sudan in 1991. He operated and
based Al Qaeda in Sudan until 1996. During this
period, bin Laden and associates established very
important connections with other terror organizations
with the help of its Sudanese hosts. Under U.S.
political pressure bin Laden was asked to leave, but
al Qeada training camps within Sudan were bombed by
Bill Clinton in 1998. |
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The Trans-Sahara
The sparsely inhabited Trans-Sahara region
provides safe haven for terrorist groups operating in
North and Northwest Africa. Torn apart by war,
disease and poverty, and marked by vast ungoverned
spaces, Africa is an emerging haven for our enemies in
the Global War on Terrorism. The Trans-Sahara region
spans ten African countries and is an area of acute
vulnerability due to vast expanses of desert and
porous borders. With a long history of being a center
through which arms and other illicit trade flow, it is
becoming increasingly important as terrorists now seek
to use these routes for logistical support, recruiting
grounds, and safe haven. The US Government has
indications of extremist groups with terrorism
experience in Afghanistan and Iraq operating in the
Sahel. The goal of the Trans-Sahara Counterterrorism
Initiative, or TSCTI, proposes to assist governments
in this region to better control their territory and
to prevent huge tracts of largely deserted African
territory from becoming a safe haven for terrorist
groups. War, poverty, disease, corruption and lack of
education, among them — create an atmosphere of
hopelessness where extremists' messages resonate,
particularly with the younger generation. The very
conditions that cause these humanitarian tragedies are
also the very conditions that lead to breeding grounds
for the kinds of threats that the US is most concerned
about in this region |
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Mali. The
Algeria-based Salafist Group for Preaching and Combat
(GSPC) maintains a regular but small-scale presence in
Mali's northern desert, where it is engaged in
recruiting, training, and smuggling activities. GSPC
members have been able to move without hindrance in
northern Mali; the government has maintained a limited
military presence in the north since the negotiated
end of a rebellion by elements of the Tuareg
population in 1996. The size of the country and the
limited resources of the Malian Government hamper the
effectiveness of military patrols and border control
measures. There have been no confrontations between
the military and the GSPC in 2005, and the government
has not taken any steps to modify its military force
posture in the region or directly confront GSPC
elements in the north because of the perceived
potential to create unrest. The Malian Government did
cooperate fully with neighboring countries in June and
July to try to isolate and capture GSPC cells in its
territory, including those responsible for an attack
in el-Mreiti, Mauritania. |
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Mauritania.
The GSPC and the Mauritanian Group for Preaching and
Jihad (GMPJ) have conducted supply, smuggling,
fundraising, and recruiting operations in Mauritania
and the region. |
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Somalia Parts
of Somalia, which has no functioning central
government, have become havens for terrorist and other
illicit activities, threatening the security of the
whole region A small number of al-Qaida (AQ)
terrorists, responsible for the 1998 bombings of the
U.S. Embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, continue to
operate in Somalia and are assisted by elements within
the complicated Somali clan structure. |
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| Members of the
Somalia-based al-Ittihad al-Islami (AIAI) have
committed terrorist acts in the past, primarily in
Ethiopia. AIAI rose to prominence in the early 1990s
with the goal of creating a pan-Somali Islamic state
in the Horn of Africa. Presently, AIAI is highly
factionalized and diffuse, and its membership is
difficult to define. Other groups have appeared in
Somalia that are suspected to have committed terrorist
acts against Western interests in the region, or to be
capable of doing so. Little is known about movements
such as al-Takfir wal-Hijra ("al-Takfir"), but the
extremist ideology and the violent character of
takfiri groups elsewhere suggests that the movement
merits close monitoring. (Takfiri ideology is an
inflexible interpretation of Islam that labels those
who do not share the same interpretation as
"infidels.") Some individuals and groups with past
AIAI association and/or current takfiri leanings are
sympathetic to and maintain ties with al-Qaida.
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Failed
States Initiative |
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Failed states are countries in which the central
government does not exert effective control over, nor
is it able to deliver vital services to, significant
parts of its own territory due to conflict,
ineffective governance, or state collapse. Current
examples in Africa include Somalia, Democratic
Republic of Congo, and Sudan. Failing states—those in
which the central government's hold on power and/or
territory is tenuous—also pose a serious threat. They
are often countries emerging from, or on the brink of,
conflict such as Angola, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe,
Liberia, Burundi, and Cote D'Ivoire. Still others,
including Nigeria are weak, if not yet clearly failing
states. At present, the preponderance of state
failures is in Africa. While the problem is not
exclusively African, the prevalence of failing states
there suggests the need for U.S. administration
policies to help stabilize African states as a
strategic interest of the United States, and to
allocate resources accordingly. |
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First, these states provide convenient operational
bases and safe havens for international terrorists.
Terrorist organizations take advantage of failing
states' porous borders, of their weak or nonexistent
law enforcement and security services, and of their
ineffective judicial institutions to move men, weapons
and money around the globe. They smuggle out precious
resources like diamonds and narcotics that help fund
their operations. Terrorist organizations may also
recruit foot soldiers from local populations, where
poor and disillusioned youth often harbor religious or
ethnic grievances |
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More africa
terrorism related Links |
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Terrorism in the Horn of Africa (PDF
File) For over a decade, the
United States has considered the Horn of
Africa—Kenya, Ethiopia, Djibouti, Somalia,
Eritrea, and Sudan—a major source of terrorism.
Following the 9-11 attacks against the United
States, the Horn has come under increased scrutiny
as a strategic focal point in the war against
terrorism. |
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Zimbabwe's Unending Agony Zimbabweans
have discovered with horror that their founding
father, Robert Mugabe, is an abusive parent, as if
George Washington had grown mad with power,
expropriated Monticello and given Thomas Jefferson
a good, instructive beating. |
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In West Africa, Threat of Narco-States
Weakly governed and close to lucrative European
markets, West African states are emerging as
illicit transit hubs for drugs and people. |
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Mosques burnt as Malawi Muslims come under attack
from Christians Muslims
in the Central African state of Malawi, west of
Lake Tanganyika, are living in constant fear of
violence from armed Christian fanatics who have
already destroyed scores of mosques and killed
dozens of people throughout the country. |
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Report: Islam in Nigeria Islam
found its way to Nigeria about two centuries ago,
starting from the north of the country, and was
brought by Arab and Muslim merchants who came not
only for business purposes, but also for spreading
the word of Allah |
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