A 2023 UNDP report found that sub-Saharan Africa has become the global epicenter of violent extremism activity, Joel Kibazo, the moderator of the first panel discussion of the eleventh National Security Symposium 2024, said on Wednesday, May 22. Highlighting “something that stood out” in the report, Kibazo noted that in 2021, almost half of all the terrorism related deaths were in sub-Saharan Africa, with more than a third in four countries – Somalia, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali, and the problem spreading to other countries, with huge negative impacts on lives and livelihoods. ALSO READ: Gen Nzabamwita makes case for visa-free African migration As if that wasn’t enough, he noted, the radicalisation of African youths, fueled by social and economic disparities, presents a significant security threat that must be addressed. Figures on youth tell a story, Kibazo noted. The youth make up more than 60 percent of Africa’s total population, he said, adding that in Rwanda, nearly 80 percent of population is under 35, while 72 million African youths are not in education, employment, or training. “You can see the potential for youth radicalisation. This is one of the most pressing challenges facing the African continent today,” Kibazo added, setting the tone for a discussion with panelists including Maj Gen Joseph Nzabamwita, the Secretary-General of the National Intelligence and Security Services (NISS), Nickolay Mladenov, the Director General of the Abu Dhabi-based Anwar Gargash Diplomatic Academy (AGDA), and Toulu Akerele, a researcher on African jihad threats, that tackled some of the causes of youth radicalism in Africa and ways how to counter them. Conceptual clarity: Should African countries develop their own understanding of what terrorism means? Akerele delved into youth radicalisation and its effects on African security, as well as countering violent extremism and radicalisation methods. But, first, she explained that radicalisation is “a phased and complex process” in which an individual, or group, embraces a radical ideology or belief that uses, accepts and or condones violence, including acts of terrorism. She said this is done in order to reach a specific political or ideological purpose such as the establishment of an Islamic caliphate. ALSO READ: Contemporary security issues on agenda as National Security Symposium 2024 starts She explained how radicalisation works, who is doing it, who the target audience is, the implications of social networks and the internet on self-radicalisation and the growth of the trend, and the role of religious leaders and institutions, particularly in radicalising and resisting radicalisation. “It is very important when understanding radicalism to differentiate the nuisances between Islamic fundamentalist and radical Islamists,” she added. While Islamic fundamentalists seek to return to traditional values and Islamic law, such as Sharia, in response to Western modernization, she said, radical Islamists aim to bring about change through violent means and radical change. Akerele noted that if Islamic fundamentalists adopt extremist views and pursue change through violence, they can be considered radical Islamists. Afzal Ashraf, a lecturer at UK’s Loughborough University and a counter terrorism practitioner, shared a simple and clear message; “what we, in the UK, call the bottom line,” upfront. African countries need to and should develop their own understanding of what terrorism means, how it originates and how it is sometimes supported in the interest of global politics, he said. He added: “Now, these global interests are often run counter to the national and regional interests of African states with devastating consequences for the lives of ordinary African citizens. This does not mean that African scholars and experts should stop learning about counter terrorism from Western countries where a great deal of research and study had been carried out. “What most military people will know is that tactical success does not lead to success in an outcome of a conflict if the strategic and the grand strategic policy is flawed.” Breeding ground Akerele then shed light on the breeding ground and socio-economic contributing factors. Using the case of the Sahel, as the most terror-affected region, she explained that poverty, political disillusionment, endemic corruption, factionalised ethnic groups, low education, and lack of job opportunities, are key components in the breeding ground for radicalisation. She said: “We have a brilliant youth across the African continent who is driven and has a desire to do something with their lives. And this desire to bring about change, or to be impactful, is seen as low hanging fruit by radical extremists. So, they give this youth something to do.” Other permissive conditions that give a rise to radical extremism include a history of authoritarianism, weak and porous borders, millions of illicit weapons in circulation, self-radicalisation due to misappropriated religious concepts such as jihad, and what Akerele called “the psychological battle for hearts and minds.” How can Africa collectively de-radicalise? Akerele highlighted some solutions and “how we can collectively” de-radicalise, and noted that countering violent extremism and radicalisation can be achieved with a symmetrical warfare. The solutions she put forward include economic development; socio-political reforms and integration through working with local communities, political dialogue with sympathisers, promotion of good governance; as well as religious moderation. She said: “Of course, there has to be collaborative thinking, and we have to have a solution that is context-specific. There is no one size fits all. There needs to be job creation, opportunities to engage the population, vocational training that will directly result into employment and counter extremist preaching. Modifying cultural narratives to educate the masses and help them be better equipped in the face of violent extremism.” “In the era of misinformation, internet-based de-radicalisation still has a long way to go, particularly when faced with the sheer amounts of propaganda that is disseminated and, again, international players playing a contributing role.” What are the underlying causes and why has Africa suffered? Nzabamwita agreed with Akerele’s academic breakdown of the problem, noting that the meeting was happening at a time when the world was undergoing tectonic changes, with global super power competition, and general lack of cooperation. With all these changes, he said, Africa, definitely, has to feature somewhere. “It is as if we [Africa] don’t count on the global stage. We are just looked at as a continent where the whole global competition is for resources on the African continent or as a continent whereby there are national security threats to all these other countries, especially from the global north,” the NISS boss said. “To understand today’s security challenges, especially the topic of youth radicalisation and violent extremism, we need to reflect back; what are the underlying causes? Why has this continent been what it has been? Slavery and the impact it had on our continent. We lost a youthful population to the Americas, Europe and the middle east. Africa was denied of its strength and therefore, the impact, as we face it today, needs to be traced backwards to those times.” Secondly, he said, was the impact of colonialism and the destruction of African nations; cultures and development, which is still prevalent today. “We are still nursing the effect of colonialism. It should not be a pretext to us as Africans but if we do not look at the colonial legacy, then we are not going to understand the challenges that we face today.” The mismanagement of the post-colonial phase on the continent, and the current phase where the continent is facing globalisation and the advance of technology, Nzabamwita noted, are also issues to contend with. “All these challenges have a huge impact on the African continent and if not well managed, definitely, are causes of what we see today,” he said, also shedding some light on the ongoing negative narrative regarding Africa, mainly propagated by Western media. “Which continent does not have these challenges? If you go to Europe and look at the populism and the advance of political parties, and governments that are leaning towards the far right, looking at petty nationalism, there is no difference between that kind of populism and the way African governments...are becoming more tribalistic. But when we are talking about the African continent, we portray it as the worst continent. No, it’s not the worst continent. There are very positive aspects on the African continent.” “It’s only that we have not managed to govern ourselves well and look at how we address the current challenges and threats and, therefore, engage in the real governance and development of our continent.” Is the Global North entirely to blame for Africa’s situation? Nzabamwita stressed that he could not blame the Global North for Africa’s situation. “I am just throwing the challenge to us, as Africans. Do we love our countries? Do we love our people?” Without necessarily mentioning countries, Nzabamwita added, “Consider the status of governance in your own country. Do you fear your population? Do you fear your youth? What programmes are there for the development of the country, to give the youth hope? We fear our own population. We fear our own youth. That is why our youths are struggling to migrate to the global north to ...this is not a problem only from Africa.” “If you don’t have a youth that is educated and employed, and that has aspirations of a better future, this now gives room for...interference from external factors... radicalisation of our youth,” Nzabamwita said, also stressing how, besides the most often discussed global problem of Islamic radicalism, Rwanda also suffered from Christian radicalisation when catholic entrenchment in Rwanda radicalised the youth. ALSO READ: Habyarimana and the genocide project During the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi in Rwanda, the 10 commandments from the Bible were used by genocide ideologues to incite the masses to commit massacres. An extremist newspaper, Kangura, published the Hutu 10 Commandments, which called on the Hutu to stand firm and vigilant against their common enemy: the Tutsi. Generally, the 1994 genocide was the culmination of a long political process involving Rwandan and foreign actors. Belgian colonization and the Catholic Church, in particular, introduced stereotypes of categorizing Rwandans according to ethnicities that did not exist as such. ALSO READ: Role of so-called Hutu Power political parties in the planning of the genocide committed against the Tutsi How has Rwanda helped? Rwanda realizes that it is not an island, Nzabamwita said, noting that the country which is currently number four among the biggest troop and police contributing countries in UN missions, among other positive ways, contributes to international peacekeeping and building of African security architecture. ALSO READ: Inside Rwanda's Rwf15bn plan to fix gender inequality in peacekeeping Besides contributing in terms of troops and police peacekeepers, Rwanda which plans to host a Centre of Excellence for United Nations Peacekeeping missions is also “bringing new paradigms including the responsibility to protect” and gender perspectives in using women to address gender-based violence. Nzabamwita said: “So, we bring in Rwanda’s lessons learnt from what we went through in 1994. Rwanda’s peacekeeping model, modelled both on the multilateral peacekeeping and bilateral interventions by working with friendly African countries, or governments, examples of Mozambique and the Central African Republic, whereby we do not only fight the extremists, or terrorists. ALSO READ: What Rwandan, Mozambican forces do after securing regions affected by Islamic State-linked terrorists “We work with the governments and civil society towards the practical de-radicalisation process by addressing the real concerns of the populations; of the youth, of the women, and therefore the population sees the government intervention as an alternative to what the extremists have been preaching to them; that the governments are predators against the population.” In Mozambique’s northernmost Province of Cabo Delgado where Rwanda, in July 2021, deployed an initial 1,000-person contingent of the Rwanda Defence Force and Rwanda National Police (RNP) to end terrorism and insecurity, Rwandan and Mozambican forces regularly conduct medical outreach programmes deep into rural areas where people are in dire need of health care services. ALSO READ: In Cabo Delgado, Rwandan medics are overwhelmed but not intimidated Rwanda’s other way of contribution has been in helping solve the migration problem. “In 2019 when we had a huge population from sub-Saharan Africa moving to Europe, many of them dying in the Sahara, some of them being caught up in the Libya situation, Rwanda worked with the African Union and we agreed that ‘you know what, other than these African youths either being in detention centers or mistreated or dying in the Mediterranean sea, why can’t we actually bring them to Rwanda and then we build a better way of processing these people?’ ALSO READ: Rwanda receives more refugees from Libya as UK politicians play ping pong with asylum plan “Since 2019, we have received thousands of these youths and we work with our Western partners who process relocation to Europe or to Canada or the US. Recently we have seen some go to Australia. So, this kind of example, if it can be emulated by some other African countries, on top of addressing our own governance problems, our own economic shortfalls, should be able to give hope to the African youths but also prevent radicalisation and its impact.” Currently, he noted, Rwanda and the United Kingdom are working on a Migration and Economic Development Partnership, which will see migrants and asylum seekers who are illegally in the UK transferred to Rwanda. ALSO READ: Twelve things about historic Rwanda-UK migration deal “But the way it is being portrayed in the media, it is actually as if it is Rwanda in the dock yet the UK approached Rwanda. We said, ‘ok, if you cannot actually host these people, Rwanda will be willing to host them in humane conditions, under international law, but you are also going to bear the cost.’ The UK said ‘yes, we are going to bear the cost.’ And what does this cost include? It includes the livelihood of these people and the employment of these youths and other professionals that the continent is actually losing to UK.” ALSO READ: UK-Rwanda deal: One must first live in Rwanda before any criticism ALSO READ: UK migrants to start coming to Rwanda within 3 months – British PM These models, Nzabamwita concluded, including others such as investment in infrastructure “that are going to be the catalyst for the employment of the youth”, help in drawing the youth away from radicalisation. “Not only do we host the international conferences but we are now also moving towards sports infrastructure whereby you include the hopes of the magnitude of the youths that should go into the sports industry, the cultural industry... As we speak, we [Rwanda] are going to host the 2024 Basketball Africa League (BAL); if you can bring all African youths in terms of competitions, in terms of employment, then this is a practical way of drawing the youth away from radicalisation.” Can the trends of radicalisation happen again? Do politicians have an excuse? Mladenov, a Bulgarian politician and diplomat who, among other things, is a former United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process, noted that looking at the youth of the future, “I think it's very important to understand not just what are the drivers of radicalisation but what is the environment” in which these young communities, particularly in Africa, get radicalised. “In 2013-14, I was the UN Secretary General's representative for Iraq and I saw with my own eyes how the protests that young Iraqis took to the streets because they had legitimate demands were radicalised and taken over by Al Qaeda. Soon after that we saw what happened in Mosul with the invasion of the Islamic State which went through a very systematic process of decimating communities in the north of Iraq, particularly, because they were: one; disenfranchised, two; impoverished, three; run by corrupt politicians, four; they had no participation in their own security, and five; they were vulnerable to radicalisation. “These trends that we saw then in Iraq are repeating themselves again, and again, in the Sahel and we have no excuse. None of us – politicians, security, diplomats, media, experts... none of us have excuses to say that we are not seeing what is happening now, because the pattern is there and the pattern can be repeated elsewhere. And it can become even more dangerous than what we've seen in the past decades.” The eleventh National Security Symposium 2024 organised by Rwanda Defence Force Command and Staff College (RDFCSC) and the University of Rwanda (UR) officially opened at Kigali Convention Centre on May 22. The three-day symposium brought together academicians, government officials, diplomats and subject matter experts including Generals, Senior Military, Police Officers and civilians from 52 countries to discuss contemporary security issues on a revolving theme: “Contemporary Security Challenges: The African Perspective”. At the 10th National Security Symposium last year, it was noted that foreign interference in Africa remains a persistent destabilising factor, and its effects continue to hold back the continent’s development. Additional reporting by Moise M. Bahati, James Karuhanga, and Hudson Kuteesa
