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Rising Isis attacks in Africa mean the ‘war on terror’ is far from over
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The battle to leave Afghanistan is becoming almost as complex as the war itself. The Biden administration is eager to go but advisers in Washington warn of the Taliban taking over once more and enabling al-Qaida and Isis to operate freely.

The independent special inspector general for Afghanistan, John Sopko, has repeated his warning that the Afghan armed forces are not ready to ensure national security. However, this will do little more than delay the US departure perhaps until November, rather than the current deadline of May.

In the US army’s efforts to create an agreement with the Taliban, it may cease air attacks for a defined time period. If it does so, this will only be after recent air strikes that were aimed not at the Taliban but at paramilitaries linked to al-Qaida that are still active in the country.

At his first White House press conference on Thursday, President Joe Biden indicated a delay but said he couldn’t picture troops being in Afghanistan next year. However, on the same day, the head of the US Special Operations Command, General Richard Clarke, told Congress that a special force presence in Afghanistan was essential because of the Taliban threat.

The role of the Taliban and the implicit acknowledgement that al-Qaida is still active in the country might have ordinarily meant that the US would keep its forces there, but nearly 20 years of war has greatly diminished the willingness to stay.

Escalating violence

On the surface this might be taken to mean that the US is giving up on its wider ‘war on terror’ in regions wherever al-Qaida, Isis or other Islamist paramilitaries are active, but the reality is very different, as illustrated by violence in three countries reported within the last fortnight.

Since 2017, an Islamist insurgency fuelled by local grievances has spread rapidly across the Cabo Delgado province in north-eastern Mozambique. About 2,700 people have been killed, nearly 670,000 people have been displaced and close to a million are short of food. The conflict has worsened in the past year, with Save the Children reporting a particularly horrific rise in murders of children, and comes off the back of the destruction of Cyclone Kenneth, which caused widespread floods that destroyed crops in April 2019.

The Maputo government has responded partly by the use of mercenaries to control the insurgency, but it has now turned to the US for help, starting with a two-month deployment of special forces to train its own marines.

[1] Url: https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/rising-isis-attacks-in-africa-mean-the-war-on-terror-is-far-from-over/