Violent extremism in Africa, Popular assessments from the ‘Eastern Corridor

Summary

The failure of traditional counter-terrorism responses, often accompanied by heavy-handed security measures that trample civil rights and aggravate grievances, has encouraged a movement toward designing strategies, policies, and programs that interrupt “radicalization pathways” and address underlying socio-economic issues that give rise to violent extremism (United Nations Development Programme, 2017). Policymakers working on these challenges need a strong evidence base in order to improve the efficacy of their initiatives. Here, public opinion research can be useful by providing insights into a given society’s vulnerabilities to violent extremism, such as low levels of social cohesion, strong feelings of fear and insecurity, and lack of trust in police and security forces (Zeiger & Aly, 2015). Afro barometer’s Round 7 surveys, conducted between late 2016 and late 2018, asked security-related questions in 34 African countries, including five countries along the East Africa Corridor that have experienced terrorist activity in recent years: Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Mozambique, and South Africa. (While Somalia has been heavily impacted by terrorism, and has been a source of terrorist activity in the region, no Afro barometer survey has taken place in the country due to security challenges.)

Keywords

Survey, CVE, Policymakers, East Africa Corridor

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