AUC Chief Moussa Faki expresses concerns about the rise in terrorist threats in Africa

Moussa Faki Mahamat, the chairperson of the African Union Commission, has voiced grave concerns on the growing threats of violent extremism and terrorism that confront the continent of Africa.

According to an AU statement, the head of the AU Commission stated during a high-level counterterrorism meeting in the Nigerian capital of Abuja on Monday that “violent extremism and terrorism are the biggest evils of our time — spreading to all the five regions of Africa.”

In highlighting the alarming conditions in the Sahel, the Horn of Africa, the Great Lakes Region, and some regions of Northern Africa, Faki called the plague of terrorism in Africa “a form of metastasis”.

The number and deadly nature of terrorist acts increased significantly in 2023, according to data from the African Center for the Study and Research on Terrorism at the AU.

In contrast to a lower average of four attacks and 18 casualties each day between 2017 and 2021, the center reports that during the course of 2023, there were an average of eight terrorism occurrences and 44 fatalities in Africa.

Faki stated that the dire circumstance “underscores our collective and urgent need to re-evaluate our counter-terrorism strategies to effectively address our vulnerabilities and shortcomings in the face of this growing phenomenon.”

He emphasized further that in order to fully implement the continental vision on terrorism that was outlined at the Malabo Summit back in 2022, AU countries must put their anti-terrorist commitments into practice.

Faki urged African nations to launch creative strategies and coordinated counterterrorism operations.

“However, we cannot understand that elsewhere in the world, coalitions to fight against terrorism were established and that similar efforts are not made in, at least, one of the five regions in Africa, where the destructive phenomenon is ravaging human lives, infrastructures and institutions,” he stated.