According to the latest Global Terrorism Index released earlier this month, sub-Saharan Africa is facing a “perfect storm” of challenges to security and stability.
With the world’s attention focused on atrocities in Syria and Afghanistan, Islamic State and its affiliates have deeply entrenched their operations in Africa’s volatile Sahel region, exacerbating long-standing threats from terrorist organisations like Boko Haram and Al-Qaeda.
Staggeringly, over the past year some 48 per cent of all terrorism deaths globally took place in sub-Saharan Africa, with four of the ten countries recording the largest increases in fatalities based in the region.
This dramatic increase in terrorist activity – adding to the combined impacts of climate change, drought, desertification and political instability – has further plunged dozens of countries and their millions of inhabitants into peril across the 3,300-mile belt.
Meanwhile, experts fear that military coups in the region are reaching “epidemic proportions”, raising concerns that Africa is sliding back towards levels of instability not seen since the 1960s when an overthrow attempt was made every 55 days on average.
It is against this bleak backdrop that the Organization of Islamic Co-operation’s Council of Foreign Ministers convened for its latest session in the Pakistani capital of Islamabad last week.
At the top of the agenda were issues of international terrorism and conflict resolution, placing a sharp focus on the recent coup in the Republic of Mali, the humanitarian crisis in Lake Chad and the fragility of Central Africa at a time when countries like the Republic of Guinea are facing constitutional crises.
It provided a crucial, global platform for the critical discussion of the continued disruption of terrorism and threats to security across the African continent – threats that threaten to extend well beyond the borders of Africa. But through those discussions facilitated by the OIC, we can continue to find new common ground in ensuring and protecting regional and global security.
A brainstorming session on the sidelines of the meeting brought together senior ministers to discuss how the Islamic world can promote peace, justice and harmony. In close partnership with our allies on the Council and beyond, this is an area where Uganda– seen as a relative hub of peace and security in an otherwise tumultuous region– has much to offer.
Uganda is widely recognised as a regional powerhouse which contributes to the development of Africa through international co-operation with organisations like the United Nations, African Union and East Africa Standby Force.
The Ugandan People’s Defense Forces (UPDF) have a well-established reputation across the region, most notably for their important role in the removal of Al-Shabaab from Mogadishu and providing escort for humanitarian relief vehicles.
Uganda was also the first nation to send forces into Somalia under AMISOM and remains the largest troop contributor in the regional force, resulting in the UPDF being praised by outgoing US Ambassador to Uganda Deborah Malac for “its commitment and sacrifice towards creating peace and stability not only in Uganda but also in the whole region”.
The US-Uganda African Peacekeeping Rapid Response Partnership goals continue to build, sustain, and institutionalize UPDF rapid crisis response capabilities for UN and regional peace operations on the African continent– fostering burden sharing and self-reliance across the region.
Meanwhile, under a Standby Agreement with the United Nations, Uganda has reserved a portion of its armed forces for deployment at short notice by the UN Secretary-General. Other efforts to support African peace-building include supporting the UN Mission in Congo (MONUC), the UN Mission in the Sudan (UNMIS) and the African Union-United Nations Hybrid Operation in Darfur (UNAMID).
Yet as the wider continent contends with a sharp increase in terrorist violence, Uganda has faced Islamist threats of its own. On a dark day for our country last November, Islamic State attackers detonated two suicide bombs near a police station and the parliament building in the capital Kampala, killing three innocent victims and injuring more than 30 others.
Our response to these atrocities has been swift and decisive. A planned third attack was quickly foiled by police, with suspects confronted and arrested across the country during a series of coordinated raids by counter-terror officers.
Within weeks, under the command of President Museveni, Ugandan troops launched a joint cross-border operation in the neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo targeting Islamic State affiliate ADF, which has killed thousands of civilians in the country in recent decades. Following a series of tactical strikes, arrests and raids, the UPDF has been hailed by locals for returning peace to towns that were previously held in the brutal grip of Islamist terror organisations.
While we are most proud of our long-term work partnering with global allies to secure regional stability, last year’s attacks in Uganda and the regional rise in extremist activity across sub-Saharan Africa nations show terrorists can strike anywhere at any time. There is simply no room for complacency.
Speaking recently to an assembly of Uganda’s international envoys, President Museveni highlighted that our joint deployment of troops in the Democratic Republic of the Congo serves to show the “oneness” of Africa, and how the continent “cannot be secure if we cannot work together”.
That is why this year’s OIC Summit – Pakistan’s OIC summit – was of such significance for Africa and indeed the world. It provided a crucial, global platform for the critical discussion of the continued disruption of terrorism and threats to security across the African continent – threats that threaten to extend well beyond the borders of Africa. But through those discussions facilitated by the OIC, we can continue to find new common ground in ensuring and protecting regional and global security.
