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Africa 'next al-Qaeda hotbed'
31/08/2006 13:04 - (SA)
Johannesburg - There is mounting evidence that the African continent will become the next al-Qaeda hotbed as the militant group seeks to expand its global operations, says a senior expert on terrorism.
Peter Pham, director of the Virginia-based think-tank Nelson Institute for International and Public Affairs, said: "Al-Qaeda would logically look for Africa."
Speaking on Wednesday night at a security conference in Johannesburg, Pham cited Africa's weak governments, large Muslim communities, rampant poverty and its proximity to the Middle East as factors that could make the continent a target.
Pham said: "It's a natural base of al-Qaeda operation. There is evidence that Africa will be the next front for al-Qaeda."
'No decision has been made'
The two-day conference on "Combating and Preventing Terrorism in Africa" was held as senior defence officials in Washington said the Pentagon was considering the creation of a new military command responsible for Africa.
They said defence secretary Donald Rumsfeld was considering the idea, but no decision had been made.
Responsibility for Africa was divided among three United States military regions: European Command, Central Command and Pacific Command.
A Pentagon official said a separate Africa command would not mean putting US troops in Africa, but would "streamline the focus and give appropriate undivided attention to the continent".
Africa had witnessed a number of bloody attacks, notably the 1998 bombings of US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, which killed 224 people, and the 2002 suicide attack on a tourist hotel in the Kenyan resort of Mombasa that killed 16. Al-Qaeda was suspected in both cases.
Global terrorism 'threat to Africa'
The African Union set up the African Centre for the Study and Research on Terrorism in Algeria last year, acknowledging that international terrorism had come to constitute a serious threat to peace in Africa.
Beyond the immediate goals of dealing with active terror groups, there were calls at the conference for more aid for economic growth and democracy.
The meeting was the first of its kind to be held in Africa, indicative of its growing strategic importance, particularly as a growing energy supplier to the US.
Pham said: "West Africa now supplies 16% of US hydrocarbons - liquid natural gas and petroleum - and by 2015 it will supply more than 25%. As it becomes more strategically important, there's greater interest."
The Horn of Africa had become an area of particular concern to western policymakers, given the ongoing battle for state control in Somalia between Islamists - suspected by the US of links to al-Qaeda - and the country's transitional government.
The US already had a strong presence in the Sahel under the $500m Trans-Sahara Counter-Terrorism Initiative.
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