Why Al Qaeda has identified Africa as ‘the weakest link’

The just concluded standoff between Kenyan security services and the terrorist group calling itself Al Shabaab that left at least 62 people dead and nearly 200 injured in the Kenyan capital Nairobi last weekend, may be proof that Africa is now being seen by Al Qaeda as the weakest link following its defeat in Iraq, Afghanistan and in Naples.

Since the World Trade Centre attack in New York City in September 2011 and the July 2005 London Underground terror attacks, Western countries have taken steps to increase security in every sphere of life, spending billions of dollars in counter intelligence, human intelligence and surveillance systems that have helped them deter most of any further attacks.

Here in the United Kingdom, we have become used to living a life of constant surveillance with CCCTV cameras stationed almost everywhere one goes, recording each and every step we make once we leave our homes to go for work. There are also cameras recording the movement of vehicles everywhere including high speed motorways where cameras have been posted to record what goes on almost every hour of the day.

The Al Shabaab attack in Nairobi at the weekend could also be blamed for the lack of interest the West has displayed since October 1993 when the United States suffered severe casualties in what has since become known as The Battle of Mogadishu, Black Hawk Down or The Day of the Rangers when two US Black Hawk helicopters were gunned down by Somali militants resulting into the death of at least 18 US marines, 80 injured and one pilot captured by the Somalis. It led then President Bill Clinton to order an immediate withdrawal of American forces from Somalia, a decision that the Somalis took as an outright victory against the world’s most powerful nation.