24 Years After 9/11: Africa Emerges as the Epicenter of Global Terrorism

By Fidel Amakye Owusu

Twenty-four years after the towers fell, the world still measures global terrorism through the lens of 9/11 – as if the attacks on New York and Washington were the origin story, rather than a turning point in a much longer, more complex war. But today, the battlefield has shifted.

And it’s not in the mountains of Afghanistan or the cities of the Levant. It’s in the Sahel. In northern Mozambique. In the forests of eastern Democratic Republic of Congo (DR Congo). In the villages of Lake Chad.

Africa is no longer just a victim of global terrorism. It is its epicenter.

A Forgotten Prelude

Few remember that Osama bin Laden lived in Sudan during the 1990s – a period when he was building networks, training operatives, and planning strikes far beyond the Middle East. In 1998, al-Qaeda bombed U.S. embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam, killing 224 people – over 80 percent of them African.

Yet in the immediate aftermath, Western media framed these as “attacks on American interests,” with African lives treated as collateral damage in a clash between civilizations – a narrative fueled by Samuel Huntington’s now-discredited “Clash of Civilizations” thesis.

For many Africans at the time, 9/11 felt distant. Not because they didn’t grieve – but because their own suffering had already been normalized.

The bombings in Kenya and Tanzania weren’t seen as part of a global jihad; they were viewed as the fallout of U.S.-Middle East rivalry, with African populations caught in the crossfire.

That misperception came at a cost.

The Rise of the African Jihad

Today, the terror landscape has inverted. Al-Qaeda’s original core is fragmented, weakened, and largely contained.

But its African affiliates – particularly the Group for Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM), formed in 2017 from the merger of four regional jihadist factions – are thriving. JNIM now controls vast swaths of Mali and Burkina Faso, operates with near impunity across the tri-border region of Niger, and recently attempted to blockade fuel supplies to western Mali – a brazen act of economic warfare that underscores its growing sophistication.

Meanwhile, Somalia’s al-Shabaab, long underestimated, has rebounded with terrifying momentum. In 2023 alone, it launched over 500 attacks, captured key towns, and even infiltrated Somali military command structures.

Its ability to exploit governance vacuums, clan divisions, and youth unemployment makes it more resilient than ever.

But al-Qaeda is no longer the only threat.

The Islamic State (ISIS) has proven remarkably adaptable – spawning franchises across the continent with chilling efficiency. From the DR Congo, where ISIS-DR Congo (formerly ADF) carries out ritualistic beheadings targeting Christian communities, to Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province – where ISIS-Mozambique has destroyed entire villages and displaced over 800,000 people – the group is carving out territorial control in resource-rich regions once considered stable.

Even in West Africa’s coastal states and Southern Africa’s remote corridors, IS-linked cells are emerging. This isn’t sporadic violence. It’s strategic expansion.

Why the World’s Response Has Failed

Post-9/11, Western counterterrorism policy toward Africa followed a predictable script: train local forces, supply drones, fund intelligence-sharing programs, and call it “capacity building.” The result? Billions spent. Thousands of troops deployed. And a dramatic increase in terrorist incidents.

According to the Global Terrorism Index, Africa accounted for nearly 70 percent of all terrorism-related deaths in 2023 – up from under 20 percent in 2001. Countries like Niger, Chad, and Cameroon have become frontline states in a war they cannot win alone.

Meanwhile, international partners treat the crisis as a security issue, not a political one.

We have ignored the root causes: decades of neglect, predatory governance, collapsed education systems, youth marginalization, and the erosion of traditional social contracts. We have outsourced security to mercenaries and foreign militaries while failing to invest in governance, justice, or economic opportunity.

Worse still, we have perpetuated the myth that African terrorism is an imported problem – the work of “foreign extremists.” But the truth is brutal: most fighters are homegrown.

They are young men radicalized not by ideology alone, but by despair – by the absence of schools, jobs, roads, or hope.

The Way Forward: African-Led, Globally Supported

The solution cannot be another drone strike or French military base. It must be a new paradigm – one that centers African agency.

First, African-led security strategies must replace Western-imposed ones. The G5 Sahel Joint Force, though flawed, demonstrated what’s possible when regional actors coordinate. Now, it needs sustained funding, political backing, and accountability mechanisms – not foreign oversight.

Second, counterterrorism must be integrated with development. No amount of military force will succeed without investment in education, youth employment, and local governance. In northern Mozambique, community radio stations and vocational centers have already reduced recruitment rates by 40 percent in pilot areas. These models must be scaled.

Third, the West must stop treating Africa as a periphery. When ISIS claimed territory in Syria, the world mobilized. When it does so in Cabo Delgado, the response is muted. That double standard is morally indefensible – and strategically suicidal. Terrorist networks thrive in the gaps between attention spans.

Finally, we must reckon with history. The U.S. and Europe did not merely fail to prevent 9/11 – they failed to recognize the early warning signs in Africa. Today, we stand at another inflection point. Will we again wait for a catastrophe before acting?

Africa’s Fight Is Ours

The terrorists who struck on 9/11 sought to fracture the West. Today, those same ideologies are fracturing Africa – and with it, the global order.

If we continue to view African terrorism as someone else’s problem, we are not just abandoning millions of civilians. We are inviting chaos into our own backyards.

The next 9/11 may not happen in Manhattan. It may come from a village in Mali, a port city in Mozambique, or a refugee camp in Uganda – and its consequences will ripple across continents.

The world has 24 years of hindsight. Let’s not waste another day pretending this isn’t our fight too.

Fidel Amakye Owusu is an International Relations and Security Analyst. He is an Associate at the Conflict Research Consortium for Africa and has previously hosted an International Affairs program with the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation (GBC). He is passionate about Diplomacy and realizing Africa’s global potential and how the continent should be viewed as part of the global collective.