The US’ war on terror impacts badly on Africa

On the evening of September 20, 2001, the then-president of the USA George W. Bush addressed the American public and laid the political, military and ideological groundwork for the “war on terror,” a global campaign of allied security forces to end domestic and international terrorism, a term so loosely defined that it soon became a container for anyone from al-Qaeda militants to leftists and human rights activists. In the same way that the world eventually realised the catastrophic failure of the “war on drugs,” more and more people are realising that the war on terror is also an unwinnable war against a constantly shifting enemy.

In this address, Bush promised what followed would not be an age of terror, but “an age of liberty in the US and across the world.” However, Jamila Osman, a US-based Somali writer and a dedicated organiser with the Resist USLed War Movement, which is a broad network of anti-war and peace groups across the globe, laments the fact that 21 years after September 11, this “age of liberty” has ushered in an expanded surveillance apparatus, bloated defense budgets, military invasions and occupations, and the death and displacement of millions of people from Iraq to Somalia. Osman rightly points out that while the Middle East is seen as the focus of the war on terror, one of the most ruthlessly pummeled frontiers of this war is the African continent.

In her analysis, Osman states that in 2007, in a post-9/11 political and psychological landscape, President Bush and Donald Rumsfeld, then Secretary of Defense, launched US Africa Command (AFRICOM), which oversees all Department of Defense military operations on the continent in order to “monitor and disrupt violent extremist organisations and protect US interests” because of the continent’s growing strategic importance. It must further be noted that initially based in Stuttgart, Germany, AFRICOM was formed without the input or support of any African leaders, many of whom decried its formation and described it as an attempt to establish more US military bases on the continent. In response, US officials said AFRICOM was meant to provide humanitarian assistance and support peace and stability because “a safe, stable, and prosperous Africa is an enduring American interest.” But many critics, especially the likes of Osman, point out that Iraq and Afghanistan, twin targets of the war on terror, serve as clear examples of the disastrous consequences of the US’ militarised “humanitarian” efforts. It is indeed true as Osman argues that AFRICOM has not created the “safety and stability” invoked by US leaders, but it has immensely expanded the US military’s footprint in the continent. During the Obama administration, AFRICOM quickly expanded its reach and influence on the continent through military-to-military trainings, joint counterterrorism operations, foreign aid and other surreptitious methods that created dependence on AFRICOM for the defense needs of African states. Despite the fact that the US is not at war with any African country, there are 46 US military bases and outposts spanning the continent, with the greatest concentration in the Horn of

Africa. For example, Camp Lemonier, the US base in Djibouti, a small East African nation with a poverty rate of 79%, serves as the current home to AFRICOM in the Horn. In 2014 the US government secured a 20-year lease for $63,000,000 a year. As AFRICOM’s presence across the continent grows, Osman argues that so does the terrorism it is meant to curb. She notes as an example the US-backed overthrow of the Union of Islamic Courts in Somalia that paved the way for a more militant group, alShabaab, to grow in rank and reach. This is just one example of how power vacuums caused by US military intervention fortify the political will and strength of terrorist groups.

In October 2017, in one of the deadliest terror attacks in Somalia’s history, a truck bombing in Mogadishu killed over 500 civilians, injuring several hundred more. In August 2022, a deadly siege and 30-hour standoff between al-Shabaab militants and the Somali security forces at Hotel Hayat in the city centre left dozens dead. These attacks point to the country’s fragile security apparatus despite persistent counterterrorism offensives and more than $200m in security assistance from the US in 2022 alone. The US’ decades-long presence has not led to a decrease in terrorist activity but has only caused increased instability in the region and enabled such violence to flourish.

Furthermore, a 2019 report released by the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies found terrorist activity doubled from 2012-2018 and the number of countries experiencing attacks increased by 960% during that time period. Moreover, there was a 10-fold increase in violent events, jumping from 288 incidents in 2009 to 3,050 in 2018. From Boko Haram’s growth in Nigeria, to al-Shabaab’s territorial advancements across Somalia, to Daesh’s reappearance in Libya, by all metrics, the war on terror has been an abysmal failure in Africa. The African people, caught in the nexus of the catastrophic violence of terrorism and ensuing counterterrorism efforts, bear the weight of this failed war. Osman laments the fact that while AFRICOM training has not helped African security forces curb terrorism, it has enabled them to repress civilian protests against reactionary African leaders who align with US interests as evidenced by the crackdown on #EndSARS protesters in Nigeria in 2020. SARS, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad, a notorious western-trained unit of the Nigerian Police, has a documented history of human rights abuses.

From this, one can safely argue that the war on terror not only created the conditions that enabled the US and its allies unfettered collaboration on security and surveillance through shared counterinsurgency tactics, but the development of a shared language and logic. From Lagos to the rest of Africa, the designation of terrorist is frequently deployed against individuals or groups that challenge the US imperial project or any of its puppet regimes. The one thing AFRICOM has dramatically succeeded at is boosting corporate profits associated with the lucrative counterterrorism industry that the war on terror has made possible. Take, for example, a 2021 report from Brown University’s Cost of War Project that revealed that one-third to one-half of all Pentagon contracts since 9/11 have gone to five transnational weapons corporations: Lockheed Martin, Boeing, General Dynamics, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman. From 2001-2020, these five companies earned $2.1 trillion from Pentagon contracts. This has therefore made some people to believe that terrorism is nothing but a manufactured political crisis and unsurprisingly, it is global weapons manufacturers that are tasked with selling the solution. It is so unfortunate that it is the Africans who are among those who are bearing the weight of this deadly “war on terror”.