Abdulmutallab, Nigeria and al-Qaeda: Are We Sufficiently Focused on Africa?

Ray Walser / January 08, 2010

The attempt by a 23-year old Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab to bring down Northwest Flight 253 over Detroit on December 25 starkly reminds us that the roots of terror run deep into Africa as they do into the Middle East or AfPak.

For two decades terrorists like Osama bin Laden, Fazul Abdullah Mohammed, the mastermind of the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, and Kenyan-born Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, a major al-Qaeda terrorist killed in a commando raid in Somalia in September 2009 have found homes in Africa. The White House recently revealed that it was on highest alert for a possible Somali terror attack on Washington on Inauguration Day 2009.

Ungoverned spaces, failed states, poverty, corruption, and political anarchy in sub-Saharan Africa are significant precursors of jihadist terrorism. The actions of Abdulmutallab demonstrates that Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and home to 75 million Muslims, is a critical nation requiring enhanced U.S. vigilance. In the past few years, Nigeria has witnessed a series of troubling internal security challenges ranging from an active insurgency in the hydro-carbon rich Niger Delta to violent outbursts by radical Muslim sects in the north. One such sect of zealots, Boko Haram, ran riot in four northern Nigerian states in mid-2009 leaving over one thousand dead. While none of Nigeria’s Muslim sects have thus far demonstrated limited international agendas or reach, they are warning signs of a spreading climate of fanaticism and poisoned hatred that pushes individuals like Abdulmutallab to jihadist violence. (more…)