Africans Must Resist Being Slaves To A Terror Construct

21 January, 2019
As a West African familiar with terrorism attacks in the region since 2012, the prospect of terror chills me to the bone. I cannot imagine going about my normal business in a mall -- only to be caught in the web of a terrorist’s dystopian construct.

As a Ghanaian, terrorism is so close yet so far. So close is it because our porous borders (read ECOWAS free movement) means Boko Haram can cross borders easily and, possibly, hide in any country like Ghana with sleeper cells ready to launch anytime and anywhere. Conversely, it is so far, because to date, Ghana has not appeared to be on its immediate radar.

Kenyans cannot say same about Al-Shabaab: it is clearly almost-always too close to call. The 15 January attacks are the third since the Westgate attacks in 2013. In Easter 2015, Garissa attacks united the East Africa Rising whatsapp group, reminding us that what unites us -- common humanity -- is stronger than what divides us.

Once again,in 2019, the prospect of a terror attack united us. It would be our Zimbabwean member who would signal to the group there was a developing story in Kenya. After frenetic checklisting, we were relieved to find that all our Kenyan members were far away from harm’s way -- although one member was scheduled to meet a friend there and missed the meeting. Subsequent checks with local media in Kenya and the BBC revealed a developing story that needed clarity and authenticity in reporting.

Once it became clear that Al-Shabaab had claimed responsibility for the terrorist attacks, it prompted speculation on what happened to Kenya’s internal security? What could have happened for Kenyan intelligence to have missed a looming threat from a border nation that continues to pose somewhat of an existential threat to its security? Even more worrying is the point that the 2015 Garissa Attack was successfully carried out in part because of the element of surprise.

Going forward, we cannot continue to accept more of the same, where the AU’s first peace-enforcement mission in AMISOM is supposed to be the first responder to fighting Al-Shabaab, yet attracts scant coverage in the region and beyond.

During Kenya’s election campaign in 2017, one of the pledges by then-candidate Odinga, now an AU diplomat, was to bring Kenyan Defense Force soldiers back home as the objective of defeating Al-Shabaab had been achieved. Conversely, candidate Kenyatta was intent on keeping KDF forces as part of the Troop Contributing Countries (TCC) within AMISOM.

To date, AMISOM TCC include: Kenya; Sierra Leone; Burundi; Uganda; Djibouti; and Ethiopia.

On the day of the Riverside attack, just two hours before news started unfolding, the twitter account of AMISOM issued a tweet about Ghana deploying 160 police officers to “bolster policing operations in Somalia within the framework of Somalia Transition Plan and UNSC Resolution 2372…” The move was with a view to downsizing the military, and drawing down the troops of AMISOM police personnel to 1040. As to whether Riverside will be a compelling reason to reconsider a drawdown is moot.

Truth is: peace enforcement is only as effective as the public support for it. Conflict resolution experts with an eye on peacekeeping forces worldwide will tell you that the 12-yr-old AMISOM remains the AU’s only peace-enforcement mission in the world. Few will know AMISOM possesses an active social media twitter account.

The attack on Garissa University in 2015 coupled with the beheading of nine people by Al Shabaab militants in July 2017, plus these fresh attacks, must be sufficient to remind the world that no matter what Kenya does, its destiny is inextricably linked with fighting the existential evil of Al-Shabaab.

AMISOM and Al-Shabaab may not be talking points this part of the world in Ghana, and West Africa, but it’s time to revise and reboot whatever support we can to all troops worldwide fighting terror. That Ghana has a police force in AMISOM should always have been sufficient grounds for us to be more intimately involved in monitoring AMISOM.

Let’s do our little bit to give AMISOM and all its troops all the support and visibility possible so we do our citizen bit to help nip global terrorism in the bud.

Emmanuel is an AU & Ecowas Policy Analyst, with 16 years research in comparative regional integration & 14 years in civil society activism.

Since 2012, he has been actively monitoring and writing about aspects of East Africa’s integration.

Between 2014 and 2016, he worked with radio hosting & executive-producing “Africa in Focus”, a show that seeks to demystify, unpack & explain Ecowas; AU; South-South cooperation. He is an occasional pundit on Ecowas & AU matters for Accra-based Starr FM & Class FM.

@ekbensah