Day: February 9, 2023

DAKAR, The leading factor driving people to join fast-growing violent extremist groups in sub-Saharan Africa is lack of job opportunities, according to a new report released by the UN Development Programme (UNDP).

The report released on Tuesday entitled, Journey to Extremism in Africa: Pathways to Recruitment and Disengagement, underscores the importance of economic factors as drivers of recruitment.

Lack of income, the lack of job opportunities and livelihoods, means that “desperation is essentially pushing people to take up opportunities, with whoever offers that”, said Achim Steiner, UNDP Administrator, speaking at the report launch.

He added that around 25 pc of all recruits cited a lack of job opportunities as the primary reason, while around 40 per cent said they were “in urgent need of livelihoods at the time of the recruitment”.

Sub-Saharan Africa has become the new global epicentre of violent extremism with almost half of global terrorism deaths recorded there in 2021.

The report draws from interviews with nearly 2,200 different people in eight countries: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, and Sudan.

More than 1,000 of those interviewees are former members of violent extremist groups, both voluntary and forced recruits.

A quarter of those who volunteered said the main factor was unemployment – a 92 percent increase from the last UNDP study of violent extremism in 2017.

Around 48 per cent of voluntary recruits told researchers that there had been “a triggering event” leading to them signing up.

Of that figure, some “71 per cent cited human rights abuses they had suffered, such as government action”, said Nirina Kiplagat, main author of the report and UNDP’s Regional Peacebuilding Advisor.

Fundamental human rights abuses such as seeing a father arrested, or a brother taken away by national military forces, were among those triggers cited.

According to the report, peer pressure from family members or friends is cited as the second more common driver for recruitment, including women who are following their spouses into an extremist group.

Religious ideology is the third most common reason for joining up, cited by around 17 percent of interviewees. This presents a 57 percent decrease from the 2017 findings.

The new report is part of a series of three, analysing the prevention of violent extremism. It highlights the urgent need to move away from security-driven responses to development-based approaches focused on prevention, said UNDP.

It calls for greater investment in basic services including child welfare, education and calls for an investment in rehabilitation and community-based reintegration services.

Steiner said a “toxic mix” was being created of poverty, destitution, and lack of opportunity, with so many citing the “urgent need to find livelihoods”. It is tantamount to a society “no longer having a rule of law, turning to some of these violent extremists’ groups to provide security.”

Security-driven counter-terrorism responses are often costly and minimally effective, said the UNDP Administrator, and investments in preventive approaches to violent extremism are inadequate.

Terrorist groups such as ISIS, Boko Haram or Al-Qaeda emerge due to local conditions, but then begin to amass weapons and secure financing – in the case of the Sahel, allowing other cells to resource themselves independently.

“The geopolitical dimension should not surprise anyone”, said Steiner, where States are no longer able to provide the rule of law or meaningful national security, “then the opportunity for other actors to become part of this drama grows exponentially, we have seen it in Mali, we have seen it in Libya, we have seen it at the Horn of Africa”.

Based on the interviews, the report also identified factors that drive recruits to leave armed groups, such as unmet financial expectations, or a lack of trust in the group’s leadership. — NNN-AGENCIES

Source: Nam News Network

The presidents of Kenya and Eritrea have wrapped up two days of talks by agreeing to remove visa requirements for their citizens as part of improving relations.

Kenya’s William Ruto and his Eritrean counterpart, Isaias Afwerki, also agreed to promote regional peace and stability even as Eritrea faces questions over alleged rights abuses in Ethiopia.

Afwerki said Eritrea would rejoin the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, or IGAD, an East African trade bloc.

“This is an obligation in the name of the people of the Horn region,” he said. “We have to assume responsibility and revitalize IGAD so that we can have a functional, real organization for the region is critical. Without that mechanism, ideas and goodwill will not be productive. We will have to create an institution that is functional and result-oriented so that we can say we have changed the face of the region.”

Eritrea suspended its IGAD membership in 2007 following a disagreement with Ethiopia over the presence of Ethiopian troops in Somalia. In 2018, Eritrea and Ethiopia reestablished diplomatic relations and agreed to end years of hostility.

Ruto said he expects Eritrea to support the region’s ongoing security operations and peace efforts.

“I look forward to working with you to ensure that we stabilize Somalia, we eliminate terrorism and we build a much more secure region,” Ruto said. “I also look forward to working with you in resolving the issues in Sudan and South Sudan, and working with our brothers in Ethiopia to build a better region for all our people and ensuring we make this region attractive for investment, trade and business.”

Eritrea, Ethiopia’s neighbor, has been accused of widespread human rights violations in two conflicts that erupted in November 2020 between Ethiopian federal government forces and the Tigray rebel group.

Last November, the government in Addis Ababa and representatives from the Tigray region in northern Ethiopia signed a peace agreement.

Tigray officials and residents say Eritrean troops have yet to leave the region, months after signing a peace agreement that requires Asmara to withdraw its forces.

Afwerki dismissed the allegations against his troops.

“Why are you bothered about the Eritrean troops who are there or not there? Come out and not come out,” he said. “Let’s assume the peace process in Ethiopia is going on without any obstacles. We would like to see the agreement signed in Pretoria and Nairobi implemented on the ground so that we can secure peace and stability in Ethiopia for the benefit not only of Ethiopians but the whole region.”

Eritrea has denied its troops fought in Ethiopia’s conflict in Tigray region, but rights groups allege the troops committed atrocities, including punishing families of accused draft dodgers.

Meanwhile, Human Rights Watch on Thursday called for sanctions against Eritrea for the government’s alleged role in rounding up people and their family members who refused to participate in mandatory military service.

Laetitia Bader, who heads the Horn of Africa operation at Human Rights Watch, said since September of last year, the Eritrean conscription campaign has been targeting draft evaders.

“They have resorted to new methods of repression against families of alleged draft evaders. So, we found that they were detaining relatives, including older people, but they were also evicting people from their homes,” she said. “So, this was not only the security forces but alongside local officials that keep a list of households through a coupon system which enables people to have access to subsidized goods, and they were going door-to-door trying to identify individuals who were missing.”

The U.S.-based rights organization is urging the international community to pressure Asmara to reform what Human Rights Watch calls Eritrea’s abusive national service system. The rights group says the system continues to drive Eritreans into exile.

Source: Voice of America

Zurich, Lionel Scaloni, Carlo Ancelotti and Pep Guardiola were shortlisted Thursday for a “best coach” award, while Walid Regragui didn’t get enough votes despite leading Morocco on a stunning run to the World Cup semifinals.

A worldwide selection panel of national team coaches and captains, plus selected media and fans voting online chose Scaloni of Argentina, Real Madrid’s Ancelotti and Manchester City’s Guardiola as finalists for FIFA’s Best Men’s Coach award for 2022.

Argentina won the World Cup, Madrid won the UEFA Champions League and City captured the English Premier League title, reports AP.

Regragui was appointed in August less than three months before the World Cup started and led his team unbeaten through a group that included Belgium and Croatia.

Morocco then eliminated Spain and Portugal before an injury-stricken team lost to defending champion France.

No coach from Africa or of an African team has ever been voted into a top-three shortlist since the first FIFA coaching award was made in 2010.

Only European and South American coaches have ever finished in the top-three places despite two-thirds of the voting panel members coming from outside the continents.

Source: Bahrain News Agency