Okeil: Ethiopian government must respond to international appeals and stop the ethnic war in the Tigray region
Gouda: Chad's recall of its forces without coordination between countries may repeat the "Afghan Model" in Africa
Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights announced that at least 60 terrorist attacks were carried out last August, as showed in its monthly report on terrorist operations in Africa, which highlighted the most prominent terrorist operations and counter-terrorism efforts in Africa throughout August 2021, in order to track the course of terrorist groups, and to come up with recommendations and estimates of the current and future security situation in the African continent.
Maat mentioned that the most prominent of those operations that took place in August, in each of the five regions on the continent, and which occurred in 18 African countries, caused the death of at least 1,313 people due to terrorist operations and ethnic tensions.
The human rights association indicated that West Africa was the worst affected by the terrorist attacks, with 620 victims, that is about 47% of the total number of victims this month. Nigeria, however, recorded the highest number of terrorist attacks, with 11 terrorist attacks, while Ethiopia ranked first in terms of the number of victims, as 350 victims fell due to ethnic tensions in the country.
Commenting on this, Ayman Okeil, president of Maat for Peace, Development and Human Rights, said that the considerable efforts made so far have not been able to dismantling terrorist sanctuaries in Africa, but rather have increased the frequency of terrorist operations, especially in light of the governments' preoccupation with fighting the Covid-19 virus and directing state resources towards the health sector.
Okeil continued referring to the tense situation that Ethiopia has been suffering from for nearly a year. The human rights expert called on the Ethiopian government to respond to international appeals, and stressed the need to support national dialogue that would end the state of internal strife and preserve the rights of different ethnicities within the country.
On the other hand, Abdul Latif Gouda, a researcher at the African Affairs and Sustainable Development Unit at Maat, added that Chad’s recall of half of its contingent from the multinational G5 Sahel force may lead to a security vacuum in the Sahel region, thus, increasing the activity of terrorist organizations, and may lead to a scenario similar to the Afghani Model, especially in light of France's intention to close two of its bases in West Africa by the end of this year, which necessitates the countries of the region to compensate for this number, and coordinate among themselves to dry up the sources of terrorism.
Notably, Africa is among the issues of concern to Maat for Peace, Development and Human rights, being a member of the General Assembly for the Economic, Social & Cultural Council (ECOSOCC) of the Africa Union (AU). Moreover, Maat serves as an Observer in The African Commission on Human and People’s Rights (ACHPR) and as a Northern African Coordinator in the major Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) in Africa of the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA).
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