by Wang Xiangjiang
NAIROBI, Dec. 22 (Xinhua) -- A string of terror attacks spewed blood and brutality across eastern and western Africa over the past year as African countries scrambled to tackle the immediate threat and seek long-term strategies to address the root causes.
Analysts say, however, events during the past year show that adoption of a holistic strategy is in urgent need as Africa's serrated response so far has largely been ineffective against an expanding terror threat that has constantly been changing tactics.
BLOODIEST YEAR
The year 2014 goes down as one of the bloodiest. The five-year death toll in terrorist attacks in Nigeria alone exceeded 10,000 while the death toll in Kenya from recent terror attacks hit 800, including 300 security personnel. The organized terrorist groups targeted mosques, churches and markets.
In the first half of 2014, 2,053 civilians were reportedly killed in 95 different attacks in over 70 towns across Nigeria, including the capital city Abuja, mostly by bomb blasts and attacks on markets, villages and in mosques, targeting pro-government Muslim worshipers.
Under the onslaught of joint African forces, Al-Shabaab -- a notorious Somali terrorist group -- was largely expelled from cities and towns in Somalia but still managed to stage attacks, not only in Somalia but also in neighboring Kenya, targeting churches and Christian pastors and later singling out Christians in attacks to incite religious hatred.
Anneli Botha, a counter-terrorism researcher at the Institute of Security Studies (ISS) in Nairobi, said the attacks launched by Boko Haram -- Nigeria's Islamist group -- and Al-Shabaab gained momentum in 2014.
Both groups showed "they are no longer limited to a specific country, but rather pose a threat to overall security in western and eastern Africa," Botha told Xinhua.
HEIGHTENED COUNTERMEASURES
"These insurgencies need to be addressed by a heightened response," Olusegun Akinsanya, veteran Nigerian diplomat and ISS regional director, told Xinhua.
"We need partnerships and the implementation of strategies agreed upon at the continental (African Union) level to fight the groups," said Akinsanya, calling for the enforcement of the outcomes of an AU Heads of State Summit on Terrorism which was held in Nairobi on Sept. 2.
The African Union Peace and Security Council summit called for heightened response to all terror attacks, reiterating that an attack on any African country should be considered an attack on all.
African leaders agreed at the Nairobi Summit to accelerate the setup of a strong counter-terrorism unit and to appoint senior intelligence officials to form a continental intelligence pool.
This proposed intelligence pool would assist in the combat against the insurgents. They also proposed that a Regional Intelligence Fusion Unit be activated to assist in the fight.
"Joining military efforts to bring peace and security was the inevitable answer to our terror and security threats," Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta said, adding that Al-Shabaab, sensing danger from intense military pressure in 2012, joined Al-Qaida, which funded its radicalization of the youth in mosques to support its terror attacks.
