The political schism that has divided the African continent has given way to muffled echoes in the Ethiopian capital, headquarters of the African Union (AU). The 23rd African Union Summit is scheduled to be convened in the Equatorial Guinea capital of Malabo. An invitation was extended to Egypt's President Abdel-Fattah Al-Sisi. Several Egyptian observers suggest that Cairo would be right to pause for breath before rushing to mend fences with Africa unconditionally. Nevertheless, the prevailing view in Egypt is that it is high time Cairo reclaims its pivotal role in the continent, particularly at a defining historical moment when militant Islamist terrorism has surged. And, still the revelations come at the eleventh hour. The African Union Preace and Security Council decided to lift the suspension of Egypt from the Pan-African organisation. Egyptian membership was suspended following the ouster of former president Mohamed Morsi last July. The controversy over how to confront Islamist extremism in Africa has become a perennial headache for key African countries such as Kenya and Nigeria, the economic hubs of East Africa and West Africa respectively. It has taken the AU decades to open debate to reach the framework for resolving the challenge of militant Islamist terrorism in contemporary Africa — a luxury Africa simply does not have. The militant Islamist militia Al-Shabab attacked the Indian Ocean resort of Mpeketoni in the vicinity of the historic port city of Lamu, Kenya and like Al-Shabab's attack in Kampala in 2010, the victims were watching the soccer World Cup unawares that they were soon to be slaughtered. The tragic incident will no doubt top the agenda at the AU Summit in Malabo. It is against this backdrop that Egypt is welcomed back into the AU fold. African nations understand that Egypt has tremendous experience in combatting terrorism, especially the militant Islamist strand. Egypt is widely viewed as a bridge between eras as Cairo was the focal point of the African liberation struggle in the 1950s and 1960s. Cairo's contribution to the AU fight against terrorism is invaluable with most African nations concurring the Egyptian experience in combatting terror is awe-inspiring. Mpeketoni was Al-Shabab's most vicious onslaught targeting innocent civilians in Kenya since last September, when at least 67 innocent civilians were murdered in cold blood during a siege by Al-Shabab fighters at Nairobi's glitzy Westgate Shopping Centre. Kenyan Interior Minister Joseph Ole Lenku described the attackers as bandits and said they had crossed a “red line”, vowing revenge. In Nigeria, too, Boko Haram, the notorious militant Islamist militia, has wreaked havoc in the predominantly Muslim northern states of the country, Africa's most populous nation and largest economy. Both Kenya and Nigeria have solicited Washington and Tel Aviv's logistical, security, intelligence and military assistance in containing the militant Islamist terrorist threat in their respective nations. Kenya sent troops to Somalia in 2011. United States drones flying from bases in Chad are trying to locate the missing 250 schoolgirls abducted by Boko Haram. Some 80 US military personnel were dispatched to neighbouring Chad this week in an attempt to launch a search for the abducted schoolgirls. The irony is that the vast majority of victims of the militant Islamist terrorist militias, Al-Shabab in East Africa and Boko Haram in Nigeria, are innocent Muslims. Suspected Islamist Boko Haram gunmen rampaged through three villages in northern Nigeria, killing 28 people and burning houses to the ground last week in a pattern of violence that has become almost a daily occurrence. The United States is currently providing key training in counter-terrorism to the Nigerian military. The most-bloody attack by Boko Haram this week occurred in the town of Kerenua, near the border with neighbouring Niger, another predominantly Muslim nation in Africa's Sahel belt. Scores of Islamist militants opened fire on residents, killing 20. Just as in Kenya, Boko Haram religious warriors, or jihadists, like their counterparts in Al-Shabab, forced the women, mostly Muslim, to watch while they executed the men. This form of psychological warfare, designed to instil fear and terror and secure submission, has become a feature of militant Islamist tactics. The tragedy is that the villagers in Kenya and Nigeria have faced an ever more indifferent public gaze. The Boko Haram debacle has touched profound issues of underdevelopment, poor educational standards and community relations, especially in countries like Kenya and Nigeria with substantial communities of Muslims and Christians. Worse, the militant Islamist terrorists exhort their compatriots to behave like them. The issue of combatting militant Islamist terrorism should be dealt with squarely and seriously. Nigeria's former President Olusegun Obasanjo, renowned for tough diplomacy, said: “I have ways of communicating with Boko Haram members, but the government has not permitted me to do so.” Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, before attending the Malabo summit, participated in the AU Summit on financing infrastructural development in the Senegalese capital Dakar on Sunday. Economic angst is a contributing factor to the spread of militant Islamist militias that recruit frustrated, jobless and disgruntled youth in Africa. Al-Shabab and Boko Haram are battle hardened. The biggest doubt is whether African governments can cater for the continent's restless youth in order to move beyond the political polarisation that has so stymied African good governance and development plans. It is in this context that Nigeria's President Jonathan was accompanied to Dakar with a high-powered delegation that included Minister of Finance and Coordinating Minister of the Economy Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala and Minister of Industries, Trade and Investment Olusegun Aganga, as well as bankers and distinguished Nigerian entrepreneurs. The Dakar trip ought to be the easier of President Jonathan's challenges. The Nigerian president, nevertheless, will need a fresh approach to dealing with militant Islamist terrorism. All three attacks happened last Thursday in remote parts of Borno state, the epicentre of Boko Haram's increasingly bloody struggle for an Islamic emirate in northern Nigeria. The whereabouts of the abducted Nigerian schoolgirls remains unknown. The Sultan of Kano, Ado Abdullahi Bayero, who was on the throne for half a century, died peacefully in his palace at the age of 83 last week. Boko Haram, who have no qualms about killing Muslim religious leaders and traditional aristocracy who do not subscribe to their militant strand of Islam, were suspected to be behind an attack on his convoy in January last year that killed four of his body guards. America's show of strength has not deterred Boko Haram from striking once again. Hundreds of innocent civilians were reported killed in northeast Nigeria's war-torn Borno state on the border with Cameroon, where the militant Islamist organisation appears to be most active. The exact number of villagers dead is unknown, though some sources put the death toll at 400 to 500. Last Tuesday, heavily armed men dressed as soldiers in all-terrain vehicles and on motorcycles attacked neighbouring Goshe, Attagara, Agapalwa and Aganjara villages in Gwoza district bordering Cameroon. Last Friday night, an attack against Chinese nationals in northern Cameroon, which is known as a stronghold for the militant Islamist terrorists, occurred. Ten Chinese nationals are missing and the incident makes business with Nigeria risky. “Boko Haram is no longer a local terror group. It is clearly operating as an Al-Qaeda operation,” extrapolated Nigerian President Jonathan in Paris two weeks ago. Nationwide Nigerian opposition to his strategy of combatting terrorism indicates that he will have a tough time assuaging his critics and detractors in Nigeria and abroad. Other African leaders concurred with President Jonathan. “We are here to declare war on Boko Haram,” Cameroon President Paul Biya declared. “There is determination to tackle this situation head on, to launch a war, a total war, on Boko Haram,” Chad's President Idriss Deby noted. He had received Egyptian Prime Minister Ibrahim Mehleb in the Chadian capital Ndjamena six weeks ago. Mehleb and Deby discussed the deplorable security situation in the Sahara and the Sahel following the demise of late Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, including the proliferation of arms and ammunition that once belonged to Gaddafi's forces. The Malabo AU Summit was initially scheduled to focus on economic and development concerns. Now it seems that security matters will be uppermost in delegates' minds. Nigeria will coordinate patrols, pool intelligence and exchange weapons and human trafficking information with neighbouring Benin, Cameroon, Chad and Niger as well as in conjunction with the AU, and especially states such as Egypt.
