Mauritania gathering seeks suitable counterterrorism strategy in Africa

Mohamed Youssri

There are growing calls for finding a way to deal with terrorist groups active in the Sahel and Sahara region, as these groups intensify their activities.

In late 2019, the German Ministry of Defense warned against the increasing influence of Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin, which was formed in 2017 after four terrorist organizations merged into each other.

The ministry also warned against the increasing influence of the Islamic State group’s affiliates in the African desert.

The growing activities of these terrorist groups in the region, some people say, make it necessary for local governments to find a way, other than the security strategy, to counter the terrorists. They call for learning a lesson from the intellectual and ideological warfare launched by Mauritania against terrorist groups.

Mauritanian capital, Nouakchott, was the scene of a major conference of African scholars on January 21. About 500 senior Islamic scholars attended the conference which lasted for three days. Collaborating in organizing the conference were the Mauritanian government and the Forum for Promoting Peace in Muslim Societies in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates.

Motivations

Debates in the conference focused on the ideological motivations behind the violence in the African continent.

Participants highlighted the fact that terrorist groups active in the continent twist religious ideas with the aim of serving their own agendas.

The same groups use religious rules in their wrong places and overlook links between some of the rules and conditions to which they have to be applied.

Social development

The conference participants called for the formulation of an effective social plan suitable for the fight against extremism and violence.

They called for utilizing African traditions in promoting peace in the continent and fighting the foreign traditions brought to it by the terrorist groups.

The fight against terrorism, they said, has to include an intellectual and religious dimension, not depend solely on security tools.