After a focused review on the background of terrorism and its rapid expansion in the past two decades, this report will address the dramatic rise in terrorist attacks and activity in North and West Africa, which have increased by a remarkable 558 percent from their low point in the eight years since 9/11. There are four sections in this report. First, the introduction surveys recent terrorism studies with specific relevance to this paper and provides an overview of contemporary terrorism. Second, a section on Maghreb terrorism concisely covers the roots and current security situation in Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, and Mauritania and its broader implications. Third, a review of terrorism in the Sahel analyzes the threats in Mali, Chad, and Niger and their broader implications. The fourth and concluding section outlines general observations on terrorism, details unilateral and multilateral counterterrorism strategies, and offers preliminary recommendations. The report also includes a select bibliography of sources and a Chronology of Maghreb and Sahel Terrorism since 9/11, which lays out a detailed timeline highlighting the gravity of this growing transnational terrorist threat.

Offers unique insights into the inner workings of jihadist organisations over the past three decades in North Africa and the Sahel.

This book represents a different approach in the study of the Sahel region in North Africa. Due to the hybrid security threats sweeping across the area, the whole region becomes a new security complex different from Middle East and more related to Western and Central Africa developments, including the impact of drug-trafficking coming from Latin America. This book discusses how the Transnational Organized Crime-Terrorism Nexus has created a very different dynamics from Middle East’s, hitting hard to people, societies and states there. The contributors argue that the countries in the area and the European Union should recognize this new complex and respond properly and differently to this situation.

As the so-called Arab Spring has slid into political uncertainty, lingering insecurity and civil conflict, European and American initial enthusiasm for anti-authoritarian protests has given way to growing concerns that revolutionary turmoil in North Africa may in fact have exposed the West to new risks. Critical in cementing this conviction has been the realisation that developments originated from Arab Mediterranean countries and spread to the Sahel have now such a potential to affect Western security and interests as to warrant even military intervention, as France’s operation in Mali attests. EU and US involvement in fighting piracy off the Horn of Africa had already laid bare the nexus between their security interests and protracted crises in sub-Saharan Africa. But the new centrality acquired by the Sahel after the Arab uprisings – particularly after Libya’s civil war – has elevated this nexus to a new, larger dimension. The centre of gravity of Europe’s security may be swinging to Africa, encompassing a wide portion of the continental landmass extending south of Mediterranean coastal states. The recrudescence of the terrorist threat from Mali to Algeria might pave the way to an American pivot to Africa, thus requiring fresh thinking on how the European Union and the United States can better collaborate with each other and with relevant regional actors.

An unprecedented analysis of how the liberation from colonial rule has threatened the Maghreb region of Africa and created political and social challenges that puts global security at risk. Northwestern Africa, known as the Maghreb, consists of Algeria, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Tunisia, and Western Sahara. Recent changes in the political climate—including the collapse of the Libyan regime in October 2011 and structural factors, such as the decolonization of the countries within the Maghreb—have escalated violence in the area, exposing global powers, including the United States, to terrorist attacks. This is the first book of its kind to focus on the strategic planning of the United States, as well as other world powers, in the stabilization of the region. Global Security Watch—The Maghreb: Algeria, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia examines domestic, regional, and international policies as they relate to the area's culture, geography, and history. Each of the book's seven chapters looks at the political and social stability of the land, and features a discussion on such topics as interstate relations, regional integration, conflict resolution, and the legislation governing security.

The 1998 attaThe 1998 attacks against US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam attest to al-Qaeda's durable presence in Africa, yet Islamist-inspired radical organisations in the continent have gained much attention of late, the result of their campaigns of insurgent and terrorist violence directed against the state in Algeria, Somalia, Nigeria, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Uganda, Djibouti and Kenya. These groups include Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Harakat Al Shabaab, Boko Haram, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa, and Ansar Dine. This book explains why the Idea of Jihad is alive and well in sub-Saharan Africa, even after more than thirty years of Western and global efforts to curtail it, and how most important organisations are formed by the interaction between the often under-estimated local and global dynamics. Stig Jarle Hansen has been researching African radical violent Islamism for more than fifteen years and is well placed to explain how and why such groups emerged, whether they manifest any specific traits compared with other violent Islamists, and what is likely to be their impact beyond the African continent. He also discusses the response of African and Western governments to this phenomenon cks against US embassies in Nairobi and Dar-es-Salaam attest to al-Qaeda's durable presence in Africa, yet Islamist-inspired radical organizations in the continent have gained much attention of late, the result of their campaigns of insurgent and terrorist violence directed against the state in Algeria, Somalia, Nigeria, Mali and Kenya. These groups include Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, Harakat Al Shabaab, Boko Haram, the Movement for Oneness and Jihad in West Africa and Ansar Dine. Evidence has emerged to suggest that beyond shared political objectives they are also collaborating in terms of finance, propaganda, arms transfers and training, while Western governments believe some of them maintain links with Al-Qaeda "central." Stig Jarle Hansen has been researching African radical violent Islamism for more than ten years and is well placed to explain how and why such groups emerged, whether they manifest any specific traits compared with other violent Islamists, and what is likely to be their impact beyond the African continent. He also discusses the response of African and Western governments to this phenomenon.

Insurgencies in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen and elsewhere the majority linked to al Qaeda are in the news on an almost daily basis. But very little surfaces about a festering insurgency that has been on the go for six years in West Africa under the acronym of AQIM, or al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. This low-level series of guerrilla conflicts is widespread and sporadic, covering an area as vast as Europe. Nigeria has been drawn into the equation because its Boko Haram insurgent faction maintains close ties with AQIM and Islamic State.For now though, the focus is on Mali where several jihadist groups despite formal peace agreements remain active. Involved is the French army and air force as well as the United Nations Multidimensional Integrated Stabilization Mission in Mali (MINUSMA), the European Union Training Mission in Mali (EUTM) as well as the European Union Capacity Building Mission (EUCAP).The insurrection that fostered all this broke out early 2012 when President Franois Hollande announced the beginning of Operation Serval. Five hours later the first squadrons of French Gazelle helicopter gunships began attacking Islamist columns. A day later French fighter jets based in Chad, almost 2,000 kilometers away, were making sorties against rebel ground targets in northern Mali.