Maat report reveals 45 terrorist operations in 16 countries in November

Ali Ragab

The Maat Foundation for Peace, Development and Human Rights released its monthly report “The Lens of Terrorist Operations in Africa” ​​on the most prominent terrorist operations and counterterrorism efforts on the African continent during the month of November, tracking the path of terrorist groups and coming up with recommendations and assessments of the current and future security situation in the African continent.

The report dealt with the details of the most prominent of those operations that occurred during the month of November in each of the five regions of the continent. There were 45 bloody operations that occurred in 16 African countries, which caused the death of at least 1,071 people. The Tigray war in Ethiopia had the lion’s share in terms of casualty numbers.

The report stated that the most affected region is East Africa, with 691 victims, or about 65% of the total percentage of the month’s victims on the continent, as a result of at least 16 reported incidents in five countries. Ethiopia came in the forefront of the deadliest countries for the second month in a row, as more than 634 people were killed in the country. In the West African region, Nigeria came as the second most-affected country on the continent, after the death of approximately 126 people due to massacres committed by Boko Haram. Mozambique came in third place, with 70 deaths, while Mali, with the help of the French forces, was in the forefront of countries according to their efforts in combating terrorism, as they succeeded in bringing down about 81 terrorist elements during November.

Ayman Aqeel, president of the Maat Foundation for Peace, Development and Human Rights, stated that the Tigray war in Ethiopia caused a doubling of the number of victims than the previous month, according to preliminary results, as there were 600 deaths during the first weeks of the outbreak of the war, not to mention the displacement of hundreds of thousands. Aqeel stressed the need to open urgent investigations regarding these operations, and the human rights expert recommended the Ethiopian government and the leaders of the Tigray Liberation Front sit at the negotiating table and stop the escalation.

Meanwhile, Basant Essam El-Din, a researcher at the African Affairs and Sustainable Development Unit at the Maat Foundation, pointed to the seriousness of the situation in the Central African region, especially with the escalation of bloody attacks by the Allied Democratic Forces. She recommended serious and effective coordination with the government of the Democratic Republic of the Congo to stop the massacres of these militias.

It is worth noting that the continent of Africa comes within the interest of the Maat Foundation, as it is a member of the General Assembly in the Economic, Social and Cultural Council of the African Union and also has observer status in the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights.