New Recruits to Extremist Groups Expected to Surge in Africa

Armed individuals including children from terrorist al-Shabab group in northern Somalia. (AP)
Armed individuals including children from terrorist al-Shabab group in northern Somalia. (AP)
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New Recruits to Extremist Groups Expected to Surge in Africa

Armed individuals including children from terrorist al-Shabab group in northern Somalia. (AP)
Armed individuals including children from terrorist al-Shabab group in northern Somalia. (AP)

More people are joining terrorist groups in Africa, which draws questions on its reasons, said a new report by the UN's international development agency.

The report underscored the importance of economic factors as drivers of recruitment.

Meanwhile, experts expected recruitment to increase as the African governments and international powers fail to find successful approaches to reduce poverty, unemployment, and ethnic marginalization in the continent.

The report monitored a 57 percent decrease from the 2017 findings in the number of people who join extremist groups for religious reasons.

A significant increase of 92 percent of new recruits to extremist groups are joining for better livelihoods compared to the motivations of those interviewed in a previous report released in 2017, according to the UNDP report released on Tuesday. 

“A striking 71 percent” of those who joined the extremist groups were affected by “human rights abuse, often conducted by state security forces”.

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.

At least 4,155 attacks across Africa were documented since 2017, said the report. In these attacks, 18,417 deaths were recorded in the continent with Somalia accounting for the largest number of fatalities.

The surge of extremism in Africa “threatens to reverse hard-won development gains for generations to come”, UNDP Administrator Achim Steiner said.

“Security-driven counter-terrorism responses are often costly and minimally effective, yet investments in preventive approaches to violent extremism are woefully inadequate,” he added.

“The social contract between states and citizens must be reinvigorated to tackle root causes of violent extremism,” Steiner continued.

Terrorist groups massively exploit poverty, unemployment, and ethnic marginalization, and they have recruited thousands in Africa, according to Ahmed Sultan, an Egyptian expert specialized in extremist groups' affairs.

Sultan told Asharq Al-Awsat that the fragility of most African economies makes the continent a hotbed for terrorist groups especially as the economic conditions worsen as a result of the Russian-Ukrainian war. He expected more recruitments.

Mohamed El Amine Ould Dah, an expert on African Sahel affairs, stated that the major powers are preoccupied with their geopolitical conflicts and have no interest in radically fighting terrorism in the continent because “this requires billions of dollars”.

Ould Dah told Asharq Al-Awsat that unemployment in the Sahel pushes thousands of youths to join terrorist groups. Other factors are oppression and ethnic marginalization practiced by the authorities.



Trump, Britain's Starmer Meet at the White House

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks during a welcome reception at the UK ambassador's residence on February 26, 2025, in Washington, D.C., US Carl Court/Pool via REUTERS
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks during a welcome reception at the UK ambassador's residence on February 26, 2025, in Washington, D.C., US Carl Court/Pool via REUTERS
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Trump, Britain's Starmer Meet at the White House

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks during a welcome reception at the UK ambassador's residence on February 26, 2025, in Washington, D.C., US Carl Court/Pool via REUTERS
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer speaks during a welcome reception at the UK ambassador's residence on February 26, 2025, in Washington, D.C., US Carl Court/Pool via REUTERS

President Donald Trump and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer met at the White House on Thursday for their first in-person talks since the Republican leader upended US policy on Ukraine, the Middle East and global trade.

Starmer is the second European leader to meet Trump this week after French President Emmanuel Macron came to the White House on Monday for a friendly encounter that displayed stark differences about Russia's war with Ukraine and the US push for a quick ceasefire.

Trump, who came into office on Jan. 20, has shocked traditional US allies in Europe by drawing closer to Moscow and Russian President Vladimir Putin, calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy a 'dictator', and demanding payback for US financial support for Kyiv, according to Reuters.

Zelenskiy is expected to be in Washington on Friday to sign an agreement with Trump on rare earth minerals, a deal the Ukrainian leader said would hinge on further US aid. Trump portrays the deal as a way to recoup American money that has been spent to support Ukraine. It includes no specific security guarantees for Ukraine, a US official said.

Starmer on Wednesday urged the United States to provide a security "backstop" for any European forces that take part in a potential peacekeeping role in Ukraine, saying that would offer Kyiv a lasting peace rather than a temporary pause in violence.

He has signaled that Britain will increase defense spending and is expected to try to reassure the US president that Europe will provide support and security guarantees to Kyiv if peace talks with Russia are successful. A senior Trump administration official told reporters they were pleased with Starmer's pledges to increase defense spending.

Trump has shattered foreign policy and domestic policy norms since the start of his second term, rattling allies by advocating for US ownership of the Gaza Strip and by promising trade tariffs on US friends and foes alike.

Trade was expected to be a topic between the two leaders as the US president demands more reciprocity from US partners, according to the Trump aide.

"We would want any economic relationship with the UK to be based on reciprocal and equal trade," he said.

Trump's relationship with Starmer got off to a friendly start in September with a two-hour dinner in New York at Trump Tower. The British leader's team said the atmosphere was warm with the "gracious host" offering foreign minister David Lammy a second helping of chicken.

Like Macron, Starmer will argue that a rushed peace deal with Russia, without the participation of Ukraine or European nations, might lead to further instability in Europe, which would not be good for the United States.

Starmer has said he is open to British troops providing security guarantees to Ukraine but only alongside other European nations and with "the right conditions in place."

European countries are concerned about the high level of conflict in Ukraine now, the US official said, while a ceasefire would give them more comfort that their role is more about peacekeeping than deterring active conflict.

"The type of force depends very much on the political settlement that is made to end the war," the US official said. "That trade-off is part of what the leaders today are going to be discussing."