Countering Jihadi Insurgencies in Africa: Repress, Resist & Reorder

Introduction

Many African countries, including Libya, Nigeria, Mali, DR Congo, Somalia, and Mozambique, have been affected by violence from jihadist armed groups. These groups pose a distinct threat to social, political, and economic orders across Africa as they violently reject the nation-state and can rely on support from the transnational violent networks of the Islamic State and al-Qaeda.

Research Focus

Research has primarily focused on international responses to violent extremism in Africa. However, international actors do not operate in a vacuum and interact with responses on the ground. To effectively tackle this violent threat, we need to know more about how domestic actors—governments, security forces, and affected communities—counter jihadist armed groups in Africa.

Key Questions

Several critical questions arise in this context:

1. Why do some governments repress these groups through domestic security operations, while others invite foreign countries to militarily intervene?
2. Why do some governments respond immediately, while others delay a response to a new jihadist threat?
3. Why do some communities decide to cooperate with jihadist groups, while others opt to resist them?
4. Why do some communities attempt to resist these groups non-violently, while others form self-defense militias to protect themselves?
5. How do domestic responses to jihadist armed groups reorder security in the region and shape conflict stabilization or escalation?

Project Goals

COUNTERRR will deliver crucial analyses of when, how, and why domestic actors repress and resist jihadist armed groups and reorder security. It will adopt an innovative multi-level and multi-method comparative approach focused on variation within and across three countries: Mali, Nigeria, and Mozambique.

Importance of Understanding Local Responses

Understanding how African countries and affected communities respond to jihadist insurgencies will help international actors coordinate and adjust their responses to benefit from local knowledge and prevent further escalation of conflict.