Africa Is New Frontline Of Global Militancy, Says Buhari On Afghanistan Crisis

President Muhammadu Buhari has expressed that the African continent is the new frontline of global militancy.

He stated this in an opinion article published in Financial Times on Sunday.

Buhari stated that while the world is preoccupied with curbing the spread of COVID-19, terrorism is worsening.

The president’s article was centred on the crisis unfolding in Afghanistan.

“COVID-19 has been like oxygen for terrorism, allowing it to gain in strength while the world was preoccupied,” Buhari said.

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“Africa is the new frontline of global militancy. Yet few expect the outlay expended here to be as great as in Afghanistan. The fight against terrorism beG0n under the George W Bush administration was never truly global.

“Despite rising attacks across Africa in the past decade, international assistance has not followed in step. Mozambique is merely the latest African state in danger from terrorism.

“The Sahel remains vulnerable to Boko Haram, 20 years after its formation, and other radical groups. Somalia is in its second decade fighting the equally extreme al-Shabaab. Many African nations are submerged under the weight of insurgency.

“As Africans, we face our day of reckoning just as some sense the west is losing its will for the fight. It is true that some of our western allies are bruised by their Middle Eastern and Afghan experiences. Others face domestic pressures after the pandemic. Africa was not then, and even less now, their priority.

“If Afghanistan has taught us a lesson, it is that although sheer force can blunt terror, its removal can cause the threat to return.”