Terrorism will be the sixth biggest issue facing Africa with corruption and job creation viewed as the most pressing issues, Ichikowitz Family Foundation (IFF) said in a report.
In the research report, The African Youth Survey 2020, the foundation noted that recruiters of various militia have approached almost ten percent of African youths as terrorism emerges as one of the biggest concerns for young people in Africa.
The report also noted that nearly 30 percent of young people identified ‘fighting terrorism’ and ‘achieving peace and stability’ as the most important issues that require urgent action for the African continent to progress.
The South-African-based foundation said it interviewed a total of 4,200 participants (aged 18–24) from across 14 sub-Saharan African countries.
The study, according to the foundation, was conducted in Congo Brazzaville, Ethiopia, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mali, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, South Africa, Togo, Zambia, and Zimbabwe.
Seventy-one percent of the youths surveyed said they were concerned about terrorism with the highest concerns found in East Africa at 78 percent, followed by West Africa at 76 percent.
Recently, Tanzania’s Inspector General of Police, Simon Sirro, said that the police had arrested youths from groups that had been recruited from the western regions of Mwanza and Kigoma, and who had confessed to being the ring leaders in terror activities.
‘Some were nabbed enroute to Mozambique to join the jihadists. The game plan is that they would later join their colleagues who had fled Tanzania’, said Sirro.
Executive Chairman of the foundation, Ivor Ichikowitz, said action must be taken urgently to avoid the spread of terrorism and its evolution into a much bigger problem.
He said, ‘Despite a decrease in conflicts across Africa, we have witnessed a rise in terrorism in large parts of our continent.
‘Isis is taking root as far south as Mozambique, Al Shabaab controls much of southern Somalia and even small pockets in Kenya along the Somali border’.
Source: The East African
Photo source: U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa
