The number of the suicide attempts increased dramatically in Africa after the Arab Spring and the following Islamist push. Nowadays, we can consider Nigeria, Somalia and Mali as the most dangerous areas in North Africa. The main objectives of the different terrorist-groups are various most of the times. Ones oppose foreign presence, others fight for absoluteness of Islam. Certain groups continue their rivalry with each other or against governmental forces for growing their authority. The suicide terror act, the tool for fulfilling their objectives increased alarmingly in every case. The questions that the current article tries to answer are what kind of tendencies could be observed after 2011 from this point of view, what is the motivation of the perpetrator and what kind of common and different characteristics could be defined among the single terrorist acts.

1. CHANGING FACE OF TERROR:
SUICIDE ATTACKS IN AFRICA
2015. 10. 13. Col. JÁNOS BESENYO (PhD)

2. Agenda
 What is the definition of a suicide attack?
 Weapons and methods
 Alarming statistics
 North Africa
 Africa’s interior
 The tendencies in 2015
 Cases
 Prognosis

3. Definition of a Suicide attack
“Attacks or operations where the attackers involved intend to deploy
themselves as a weapon – in the full expectation that they will be killed – in
the execution of a deliberate attack against people and/or property to cause
harm, which is normally ideologically, religiously and/or politically motivated.”
– Anneli Botha(2013): Practical Guide to understanding and preventing
suicide operations in Africa
“a suicide terror attack is an act of violence, where there is no chance for the
perpetrator to return alive” - Pedahzur, Ami (2004): Suicide Terrorism.
•The aim of terrorism is to intimidate
•It is a tactic and its most abhorrent tool is the suicide attack
•Suicide bombing: the perpetrator is not likely to survive

4. Weapons and methods
 The most often used tools are
explosive belt or satchel
charge
 Explosives are frequently
hidden in a car or a van
 Favored vehicles for suicide
bombing:
 Bicycle
 Car
 Boat
 Bus
 Plane

5. Alarming statistics
 Between the early 1980s and the beginning of the twenty-first century,
some 200 suicide attacks took place around the world
 Dramatic increase from 2000: more than 3000 suicide attacks have
taken place over the last 15 years
 Significant role of the attack against World Trade Center in 2001
 In 2013, 18 countries - 3100 deaths in 291 attacks (25 percent
increase in the number of attacks over the previous year)
 from 1998 to 2011: 117 suicide attacks in Africa
 from 2011 till 2015 198 suicide attacks happened with 1880 dead and
3538 wounded.
 2014: 65 suicide bombings (total 792 dead and 1492 injured)
 In this year 62 suicide attempts till 17 August (total 535 death and 1006
injured).

6. North Africa
 political instability after the Arab Spring
 result: turmoil and considerable increase in suicide
bombings
Year Number
of attacks
Number
of deaths
Number
of
casualtie
s
Average
number of
fatalities
2011 4 45 108 11.3
2012 2 1 26 0.5
2013 8 58 244 7.3
2014 16 88 234 5.5
2015 21 119 222 5.9
Total 51 311 834 6.2

7. North Africa
 Egypt: Terrorist activity increased particularly after the ouster of
President Mohammed Morsi. Most dangerous area is the Sinai
Peninsula (four out of Egypt’s six suicide bombings until the end of
2013)
 Libya: Suicide attacks increased significantly. First suicide attack
occurred in December 2013; there were 5 similar cases in the
following six months
 Tunisia: serious security problems, but only one suicide attack until
now
 Algeria: least troubled: no suicide attack during the last three years

8. 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35
Egypt
Libya
Algeria
Tunisia
North Africa
Country Number of
attacks
Number of
deaths
Number of
casualties
Average
number of
fatalities
Algeria 5 21 55 4.2
Egypt 15 134 487 8.9
Libya 30 138 242 6.0
Tunisia 1 0 0 0.0

9. Africa’s interior
 The number of suicide
attacks in Africa’s interior
has remained relatively
stable
 33 such attacks in 2013 →
five fewer than in the
previous year
 At the end of 2014 the
number of the attacks
reached 48
 Till 17 August 2015 – 42
attacks
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
2011 2012 2013 2014 2015

10. East Africa
Year Number
of attacks
Number
of deaths
Number
of
casualties
Average
number of
fatalities
2011 14 238 364 17.0
2012 38 289 815 7.6
2013 33 214 327 6.5
2014 48 703 1243 14.6
2015 42 417 799 9.9
Total 175 1861 3548 10.5
 The most prominent terrorist
organization is al-Shabaab in
Somalia
 It carried out 14 attacks against
foreign troops and government
officials present in the country
until the end of 2013
 It did not restrict the suicide
attacks to Somalian territory →
carried out several attacks in the
neighboring countries (Uganda
2010 → 76 deaths, Kenya
October 2013 → 67 deaths)

11. West Africa
 Mali became another danger zone
 There were 15 suicide attacks, most
of them carried out by the Movement
for Oneness and Jihad in West
Africa, mainly in the district of Gao
and Kidal as a revenge of French
intervention
 They also carried out assassins in
other countries (e.g. Nigeria in May
2013 with al-Mulathamun Battalion)
 Considerable decline in 2013: 21
attacks in the previous year reduced
to 3 occasions
 Decline seems to be temporary →
additional attempts on crowded
markets, petrol stations or Shia mosques
0 50 100
Unknown Group
Al-Shabaab
Boko Haram
Movement for the Oneness and
Jihad in West Africa
Al-Qaeda in the Land of the
Islamic Maghreb

12. Trends in 2015 - Libya
 The Shura Council of Benghazi
Revolutionaries attacked
government troops loyal to General
Kalifa Hafter, who fight intensely
against Islamist forces
 The method: the perpetrator close a
checkpoint with a truckload of
explosives and activate the
detonator when soldiers approach
to check it out
 Islamist radicals rely on suicide
attacks with increasing frequency,
not only against enemy combatant
forces but also against civilian
targets. - 27th of January 2015,
Corinthia Hotel

13. Mali-
Somalia
 Suicide attacks targeted primarily
UN and AU peacekeepers
(checkpoints or convoys) and
against government employees
 civilians are „collateral damage,”
but Al-Shabaab also targets them
directly
 Attacks are carried out with
vehicles, but suicide bombers
and small arms fire are often
combined.
 Difference in the number of
attacks until the middle of August:
3 in Mali, 14 in Somalia –
significant increase

14. Nigeria-Cameroon-Niger-
Chad
 regional insecurity in West-
Central Africa - porous borders
- suicide attacks in all countries
 The number of female suicide
bombers is growing
 Boko Haram often targets
those schools where Koranic
studies are limited
 Prominent religious leaders are
also targets if they encourage
their community to fight against
the terror organization
 Boko Haram affiliated with IS

15. Cases - 1
July 22, 2015, Maroua, Cameroon and Gombe, Nigeria
 Maroua, Cameroon: two girls, under 15 years old, bomb the central
market in the town and its adjacent Hausa neighborhood at 3.00. pm. – 11
killed, 32 wounded
 Gombe, Nigeria: Dadin Kowa bus station bombed at 7:30 pm, the Dukku
terminus about 20 minutes later. 42 killed and 60 wounded. Gombe is
attacked frequently (e.g. 16. July – 49 killed, more than 100 wounded).
 twin suicide attacks in N'Djamena, Chad
 twin attacks - worrysome 2015 trend of using captured and brainwashed
child and adolescent suicide bombers by Boko Haram - often females.
 Boko Haram become a potent regional force - employ sophisticated tactics
of brainwashing their captives not only within the confines of Nigeria but
also in Cameroon, Niger, and Chad

17. Suicide attack in the central market of
Maroua on 22 July 2015

18. Blast ripped through the station at almost exactly 7:30
pm
Bomb attack at 7:50 pm
Gombe
e
•

19. Cases - 2
20th February, 2015Libya, Al-Qubbah,
 targets: police headquarters, petrol station, the city hall, and at the
private residence of a politician and Member of Parliament, Aguila
Saleh Issa
 Methods: suicide attackers with car bombs
 petrol station: suicide attackers entered the crowd that queued there
for petrol with an emergency vehicle filled with explosives - highest
causalities
 42 people died, more than 70 people were injured included five
Egyptians
 The attacks were intended as an answer to the governments of Libya
and Egypt, after Egyptian air force, with Libyan government
acquiescence, bombed terrorist strongholds that belonged to IS’s
Libyan allies. - attackers: Shura Council of the Youth of Islam
 turning point in post-Qaddhafi Libya: civilians targeted for the first time

21. Attacks were carried out at the city
headquarters, at a petrol station, at a city
hall, and at the private residence of a
politician on 20 February 2015

22. Cases - 3
21st February, 2015Somalia, Mogadishu,
 Target: Central Hotel – members of Parliament
 The male attacker (Ismail Muse) crashed his vehicle into the
main gate of the building, and when inside, he blew himself.
 At the same time the female attacker (Lula Ahmed Dahir)
mingled with the worshipers in the mosque and detonated the
device on her body.
 Following the explosions, Al-Shabab gunmen hiding outside
launched an attack against the ministers who were holding a
meeting.
 25 dead (including two MPs and Mohamed Aden Guled, the vice
mayor of Mogadishu) and 54 injured

24. Attack of Central Hotel on 21
February 2015

25. Prognosis
 Current trends indicate that the number of suicide attacks
will increase
 Importance of the ideological radicalization of terrorist
organizations and the role of political instability
 The African terrorist organizations have wide global
connections
 Recruitment is no problem → volunteers are local
inhabitants living under the poverty line in economically
underdeveloped countries
 Solution: eliminate political anarchy and stabilize the
economy of these states → increased support from the
Western World is needed

26. Biography
 János Besenyő: Suicide Terror Attacks in Africa –
Strategic Impact (Romania), ISSN: 1841-5784, No. 56.,
3/2015, pp. 90-100,
https://figshare.com/articles/Suicide_Terror_Attacks_in_
Africa/7019681

27. Questions?
Thank you for your kind attention!