Violent Islamist extremism and terror in Africa

Can politics and conflict in North Africa and the Middle East be linked to the evolution of Boko Haram or al-Shabaab?

This paper presents an overview of large-scale violence by Islamist extremists in key African countries.

The paper builds on previous publications of the Institute for Security Studies on the nexus between development and conflict trends, and it seeks to provide an overview of the evolution of the associated terrorism through quantitative and contextual analysis using various large datasets.

The focus is on the development and links among countries experiencing the worst of this phenomenon, especially Algeria, Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Mali, Nigeria and Somalia, as well as the impact of events in the Middle East on these African countries.

About the author:

Jakkie Cilliers is the executive director of the ISS, and head of the African Futures and Innovation section. He is an extraordinary professor at the Centre of Human Rights and the Department of Political Sciences, Faculty of Humanities, at the University of Pretoria.

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