Blood path: Africa suffers rise in terrorist attacks in first half of 2023

African countries receive one blow after another from terrorist organizations.

These organizations exploit the security vacuum in these countries, along with the weakness of their governments, in implementing their criminal plans.

African states were exposed during the first half of 2023 to about 1,800 terrorist operations.

These operations left over 4,600 people dead and injured, according Omar Alieu Touray, president of the ECOWAS Commission.

East Africa

East Africa came in first position in terms of the number of victims, with 1,126 people killed as a result of terrorist operations.

Hundreds of inhabitants of this part of Africa were also injured because of these operations.

West Africa came in second place, especially with the ISIS-leaning Boko Haram operating in the area.

Terrorist attacks in this region left 813 people dead and hundreds of others injured.

The Sahel and Sahara region also came in third position in terms of the number of victims.

This area was attacked by terrorist organizations operating in the region, such as Nusrat al-Islam and Muslims, ISIS of the Sahara, and Ansar al-Islam.

Attacks by these groups left about 600 people dead.

Extremist organizations continue to launch large-scale attacks against civilian and military targets in the area, especially the tri-border area of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

This portends an aggravation of the already deteriorating humanitarian situation in the region due to the security crisis.

As for the Central African region, it came in fourth place in terms of the number of victims.

Attacks in this region left 380 people dead and dozens of others injured.

These attacks were mainly staged by the rebels of the Allied Democratic Forces which is affiliated to ISIS.

This group attacked the region with ferocity in the first half of this year.

Main reason

Instability is viewed as the main reason behind the increase in the frequency of terrorist attacks in Africa.

The failure of African governments in providing their citizens with basic services and creating jobs for them also increases the number of disgruntled citizens who are recruited easily by terrorist organizations.

All these reasons have turned Africa into a global centre of extremist violence.

This mainly boils down to the increasing rate of people joining extremist groups for economic reasons.

Almost 92% of those who join terrorist groups seek to improve their living conditions.

This crisis was exacerbated by the absence of security and intelligence coordination between the countries of the region, weak border control between countries, as well as political instability in troubled countries.