‘No plan to check their spread’ — Lumumba speaks on activities of terrorists in Africa

Patrick Lumumba, former director of the defunct Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission (KACC), says African leaders are nonchalant about the surge of terrorists on the continent.

In an interview with 90Minutes Africa on Sunday, Lumumba said the terrorists were hiding under the guise of religion to spread chaos.

In the 2023 global terrorism index (GTI) ranking published by the Institute for Economics & Peace (IEP), an independent and non-profit think tank, the Islamic State topped the ranking with 1,045 deaths and 410 attacks.

Al- Shabaab ranked next with 784 deaths and 315 attacks while Islamic State – Khorasan Province (ISK) recorded 498 deaths and  141 attacks; Jamaat Nusrat Al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM), 279 deaths and 77 attacks; Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA), 233 deaths and 30 attacks.

The Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) ranked 6th with 219 deaths and 65 attacks followed by Boko Haram which is responsible for 204 deaths and 64 attacks.

The report also showed Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) as recording 137 deaths and 90 attacks, followed by Islamic State – Sinai Province with 71 deaths and 27 attacks, and then the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) as number 10.

According to Lumumba, the ideology of the terrorist groups operating in Africa should be viewed in the context of the Abuja declaration, which states that there is a plot by radical elements in the “Islamic world to Arabise and Islamise Africa”.

“One can see in the entire Sahelian region now, from Mauritania to Mali to Burkina Faso to Sudan to Niger to Libya, how this agenda is playing out,” he said.

“In my view, there is no deliberate effort on the part of African governments to deal with this particular version of Islam which I think is not classical Islam.

“These are terrorists who are using the name of Islam to spread an ideology which is violent and is designed to dominate. And they have not only captured the Sahelian region and parts of North Africa but they can also be found in the Horn of Africa.

“And we don’t seem to have a plan to check their spread in the continent. If we are not careful, in the next 50 years, it is this bastardized version of Islam that will dominate the continent of Africa.”