War Against Terrorism: Uncle Sam’s Call to Arms

Sixty countries were represented: some by executive chiefs, others by foreign affairs ministers, and yet others by holders of interior or justice positions.

We are in Washington, where an international summit on the war on terrorism and “violent extremism in the world” has been held since Wednesday, a bloody theme since the beginning of 2015, when terrorist acts plunged families into mourning, from Nigeria to Copenhagen, by way of Bosso and Paris.

Indeed, how can a phenomenon taking on scary, new dimensions in numerous regions and even on a global scale be checked?

The Islamic State, al-Qaida, the al-Shebaab, Boko Haram: All are faces from the innumerable facets of violent extremism, and this same question always worries the world’s leaders when faced with the increasing power of what everyone recognizes as the “terrorist threat.”

This theme is made all the more prevalent by its repeated presence at the center of regional meetings, since on the African continent alone, the African Union summit, initially organized around the topic of gender empowerment, has largely been dominated by the question of the terrorist threat.

There has also been the Niamey summit on Boko Haram, and no later than last Monday, that of Yaoundé on the same topic, but this time organized by the Economic Community of Central African States.

As proof that the African concerns are shared by the great and less great of the world, Barack Obama has called for general mobilization to face this scourge of planetary proportions by directing discussions on the military aspects of the struggle and the prevention of radicalization to avoid reinforcing terrorist groups as a central theme.

Among the recipes approved by Uncle Sam during this summit, there is one that consists in offering training courses and jobs to the people most susceptible to be seduced by the distilled radical rhetoric of the nebula’s recruiters.

[This is] a long-term investment, even a very long-term one, that does not answer today’s most pressing questions. What to do against this squid that, surreptitiously, spreads its tentacles over the free world?

It remains to be hoped that on the Potomac’s shores, Africans will be able to speak with one voice and with enough volume to be heard by the distant Uncle Sam and the other greats of this world, who also have their own villains to fry.