(Counter-) terrorism in Africa: Reflections for a new decade

Figures & data

Table 1. Multilateral cooperation on CT/CVE in Africa

Name of mechanism\statement	Date of adoption	Peace of adoption	Brief description of the purpose of mechanism\statement
OAU Resolution on the Strengthening of Cooperation and Coordination among African States	1992	Dakar, Senegal	A collective commitment is made to fight both extremism and terrorism.
OAU Declaration on the Code of Conduct for Inter-African Relations	June 1994	Tunis, Tunisia	Rejection of all forms of extremism and terrorism regardless if committed under the pretext of sectarianism, tribalism, ethnicity or religion. An additional commitment was made to criminalise all acts, methods and practices of terrorism.
OAU Convention on the Prevention and Combating of Terrorism	12–14 July 1999	Algiers, Algeria	Provides a common framework outlining the individual responsibilities of states as well as collectively.
AU Plan of Action on the Prevention and Combatting of Terrorism	September 2002	Algiers, Algeria	Seeks to facilitate cooperation in the areas of policing, border control, legislative and judicial measures, terrorism financing and information sharing.
Decision on the Elaboration of a Code of Conduct on Terrorism	10–12 July 2003	Maputo, Mozambique	Welcomes Tunisia’s proposal to convene an international conference to establish a code of conduct on how to address terrorism.
Decision on Terrorism in Africa	10–12 July 2003	Maputo, Mozambique	Welcomes the OAU Convention on the Prevention and Combatting of Terrorism’s entry into force on the 6th of December 2002. Endorses the AU Plan of Action on the Prevention and Combatting of Terrorism and requests that the AU Commission aid its implementation.
Decision on the Draft Protocol to the OAU Convention on the Prevention and Combatting of Terrorism	6–8 July 2004	Addis Ababa, Ethiopia	Adopts the Protocol and requests the AU Commission to take the necessary steps to facilitate implementation.
Decision to Combat the Payments of Ransom to Terrorist Groups	1–3 July 2009	Sirte, Great Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriya	Expresses concern over piracy, hostage-taking and increasing ransom demands. Calls on the international community to criminalise payment of ransom and further calls on the United Nations Security Council to adopt a restrictive resolution so as to consolidate legal provisions under Resolutions 1373 and 1267.
Decision on the Terrorist Attack against the Togolese National Football Team	31 January–2 February 2010	Addis Ababa, Ethiopia	Condemns the attack carried out against the Togolese National Football Team and calls on all African non-African states ‘to abstain from promoting, supporting, sheltering and harbouring terrorist groups.’^a
Decision on the Prevention and Combatting of Terrorism	27 July 2010	Kampala, Uganda	Condemns al-Shabaab activity in Uganda. Calls on all AU member states to cooperate on matters of CT via the AU.
Declaration of Solidarity with the Republic of Kenya following the Terrorist Al Shabab / Al Qaeda Attack on the Westgate Shopping Mall in Nairobi, Kenya	12 October 2013	Addis Ababa, Ethiopia	Calls for regular reports to be filed with the Commission on the State of Terrorism in Africa.
Declaration of Solidarity with the Federal Republic of Somalia following the Terrorist Al Shabab / Al Qaeda Attack on a Market in Mogadishu	12 October 2013	Addis Ababa, Ethiopia	AU Heads of Government express concern at the capabilities of al-Shabaab\al-Qaeda and stand in solidarity with the government and people of Somalia.
Decision on the African Centre for Studies and Research on Terrorism	12–16 March 2004	Addis Ababa, Ethiopia	Appeals to the AU Commission to compile a modus operandi for the Centre for the Study and Research on Terrorism (the Centre).
Decision on the Draft Additional Protocol to the OAU\AU Convention on the Prevention and Combating Terrorism	12–16 March 2004	Addis Ababa, Ethiopia	Acceptance of additional protocol and asks the AU Commission to enter the Protocol into force.
Decision on the African Centre for Studies and Research on Terrorism	25 June–3 July 2004	Addis Ababa, Ethiopia	Acceptance of Algeria’s offer to host the Centre. Appeals to AU partners to provide the necessary support for the Centre.
Modalities for the Functioning of the Centre for Studies and Research on Terrorism	28 June–2 July 2005	Sirte, Libya	The Centre shall help states to build CT capacity and guide ethical research standards.
Windhoek Declaration: Silencing the Guns-Terrorism, Mediation and Groups	21–22 October 2015	Windhoek, Namibia	The fight against terrorism and extremism is placed at the top of the policy agenda. Emphasis is placed on the need for good governance, tolerance and accountable, transparent and inclusive governance systems.

Source: The authors’ compilation, with data from the AU Centre for the Study and Research on Terrorism, ‘AU Decisions, Resolutions and Conventions on Violent Extremism and Terrorism,’ https://caert.org.dz/?page_id=1252; Institute for Security Studies, ‘Counter-Terrorism Africa,’ https://issafrica.org/ctafrica/international-regional-counter-terrorism-related-legal-instruments/african-union-au/african-union-au-decisions-and-documents?page=1.

^a African Union, Declaration 273 (XVI), Decision on the Terrorist Attack Against the Togolese National Football Team, Assembly\AU\Dec.273 (XVI) (Feb. 10, 2010), https://caert.org.dz/AU-Res-Dec-Decl/Assembly-AU-Dec-273.pdf

Table 2: The growing proliferation of terrorism in Africa over the last decade.

State name: Global rank out of top 20; Rank in Africa
2012/13	2014	2015	2016	2017	2018	2019	2020
Somalia: 6;1	Nigeria: 4;1	Nigeria: 3;1	Nigeria: 3;1	Nigeria: 3;1	Nigeria: 3;1	Nigeria: 3;1	Nigeria: 3;1
Nigeria: 7;2	Somalia: 7;2	Somalia: 8;2	Somalia: 7;2	Somalia: 7;2	Somalia: 6;2	Somalia: 6;2	Somalia: 5;2
Sudan: 11;3	Kenya: 12;3	Egypt: 13;3	Egypt: 9;3	Libya: 10;3	Egypt: 9;3	DRC: 10;3	DRC: 9;3
DRC*: 12;4	Egypt: 13;4	CAR^†: 14;4	Libya: 10;4	Egypt: 11;4	DRC: 11;4	Egypt: 11;4	Mali: 11;4
Algeria: 16;5	Libya: 15;5	So. Sudan: 15;5	Cameroon:13;5	DRC: 13;5	Libya: 13;5	Libya: 12;5	Burkina Faso:12;5
Kenya: 18;6	DRC: 18;6	Sudan: 16;6	Niger: 16;6	So. Sudan: 14;6	So. Sudan: 14;6	Mali: 13;6	Cameroon: 13;6
	Sudan: 19;7	Kenya: 18;7	DRC: 17;7	Sudan: 18;7	CAR: 15;7	CAR: 14;7	Egypt: 14;7
	So. Sudan^‡: 20;8	DRC: 19;8	Sudan: 18;8	CAR: 19;8	Cameroon: 16;8	Cameroon: 15;8	Mozambique:15;8
		Cameroon: 20;9	Kenya: 19;9	Niger: 20;9	Sudan: 18;9	So. Sudan:17;9	Libya: 16;9
			CAR: 20;10		Kenya: 19;10	Sudan: 20;10	CAR: 17;10

Source: The authors’ compilation, with data from the Institute for Economics and Peace, ‘Reports’, Global Terrorism Indexes 2012/3-2020, https://www.economicsandpeace.org/reports/*Democratic Republic of Congo.†Central African Republic.‡South Sudan.