By CEO Drive Today Security
The war on Jihadi Groups is bound to continue in 2020 with world powers increasingly and more openly getting
involved on the continent. They been carrying out surveillances, training local forces and also even targeting
these militant groups either directly or through proxies.
The Al Shabaab remains a potent headache in the horn of Africa and is bound to persist for a long
foreseeable future. In Southern Africa, another Jihadi Group, an offshoot of the Islamic State is also showing signs of curving out space in Northern Mozambique and by extension destabilizing the southern border regions.
But the main focal point will be in the Sahel -West Africa. The Jihadi Groups have been incessant in their operations in the Sahel region and have made signature moves deep in the neighbouring countries of Mali and Burkina Faso. But then, there has also been an increase in the number of forces from Europe and the US deployed to counter these threats.
But three things are key in these western assisted operations: One, the capacity of the local forces to hold their ground independently from the Jihadi attacks and two, whether these Europe and USA forces can win over the local communities and not be seen as invaders or occupiers.
Apart from the military action, what will also be expected to markedly visible will be the solid political and community- based approaches used when engaging the local communities.
Ironically, three African countries will continue to be in conflict but still will not be able to grab the world’s attention.
In Eastern Africa, there has been repeated international nudging for the signed peace agreement to hold in South Sudan.
It is likely to hold but barely as personal interests and historical suspicion among the two major ethnic groups remain hard to dissolve. In Central Africa, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) a complex Gordian knot not so easily resolved.
The recent attack there on peace keepers will likely to spur some action from the UN, but any action will only be limited in terms of results because of the sheer size of the country and the number of armed groups operating there.
The drone will determine the face of conflict in Africa in 2020.
