“Ungoverned” territories are expanding in the Horn of Africa. State control in the fragile states of Eritrea, Sudan, and South Sudan seems to erode at an accelerating rate. The massacre in Garissa, North Kenya in March also reminded us of Al-Shabaab’s determination to spread Jihadism to Somalia’s neighbouring states.
While attacks by rebel groups and “terrorists” receive attention in media, counter-insurgency operations – i.e. state violence and interventions – often go unnoticed. Kenya, Ethiopia and Uganda are involved in fighting Al-Shabaab in Somalia and are “allies” of the US in the war against terror. Uganda also intervenes in the current civil war in South Sudan and has carried out a long-lasting campaign against the Lord’s Resistance Army in Congo and the Central African Republic. Against this backdrop PRIO invites three international authorities on Jihadism in the region to discuss how it poses a threat to stability and insecurity in the Horn of Africa.
The panel
T**he Securitization of the Kenyan State
- Professor David M. Anderson (University of Warwick) is the author (with Jacob McKnight) of Kenya at War: Al Shabaab and its Enemies in Eastern Africa’ in African Affairs (2015).
Jihadism in Somalia, Djibouti and Ethiopia
- Dr. Stig Jarle Hansen (University of Life Sciences)is author of Al Shabaab in Somalia: The History and Ideology of a Militant Islamist Group, 2005-2012 (Oxford University Press, 2013).
The search for effective counter-insurgency strategies against Jihadism in the Horn of Africa
- Professor William Reno (Northwestern University) author of Warfare in Independent Africa (Cambridge University Press, 2011).
Discussant: Jacob Høigilt, PRIO
Chair: Øystein H. Rolandsen, PRIO
