The report is correct, The Journey to Extremism in Africa: Approaches to Recruitment and Attritionemphasizes the importance of economic factors as drivers of recruitment.
Target factor
Lack of income, lack of job opportunities and livelihoods, means that “anxiety is essential push people to take chances, including whoever offers that”, said Achim Steiner, UNDP CEO, speaking at the launch of the report.
He added that around 25 percent of all recruits cite a lack of job opportunities as the main reason, while around 40 percent said that they are in “urgent need of life in record time”.
Sub-Saharan Africa has become the new global hub of violent extremism with almost half of the world’s terrorist deaths recorded there in 2021.
The report is based on interviews with 2,200 different people in eight countries: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, and Sudan.
In their own words
More than 1,000 of those interviewed were former members of violent extremist groups, both voluntary and recruited.
A quarter of those who volunteered said the main reason was unemployment – a 92 percent increase from the last UNDP survey of violent extremism in 2017.
Around 48 percent of voluntary recruits told researchers that there had been a “trigger event” that led to their enlistment.
Abuse driving recruitment too
Of that figure, some “71 percent mentioned human rights abuses they have suffered, such as government action”, said Nirina Kiplagat, the first author of the report and the UNDP’s Community Peace Adviser.
Abuses of basic human rights such as sight the father took it, or the brother was taken away by the national forces, are among the factors cited.
According to the report, peer pressure from family members or friends, was cited as the most common driver for recruitment, with women following their spouses into the gang.
The idea of religion was the third most common reason for joining, cited by about 17 percent of the interviewees. This represents a 57 percent decrease from 2017 findings.
Families from Nigeria who fled the Boko Haram attack in Nigeria, have been sheltered in Diffa, Niger
Corrections based on development
The new report is part of a series of three, analyzing the prevention of violent extremism. It shows the There is an urgent need to move away from defensive responses to development-based approaches focus on prevention, says UNDP.
He called for greater investment in basic services including child welfare, education and calls for investment in rehabilitation and community regeneration services.
Mr. Steiner said that a “toxic mix” was created of poverty, deprivation, and lack of opportunity, with many pointing to “urgently needed to find lives”. It is normal to a society”who no longer have the rule of law, turning to some of these violent extremist groups to provide protection.”
Security-led counter-terrorism responses are often costly and less effective, the UNDP president said, and investments in countermeasures to violent extremism are insufficient.
Terrorist groups like ISIS, Boko Haram or Al-Qaeda emerged due to local conditions, but then began to gather weapons and safe funding – in the case of the Sahel, giving other cells to give themselves to each other in freedom.
Lack of job opportunities in places like Niger (pictured) is driving many people to extremist groups.
No wonder
“The geopolitical dimension should not surprise anyone“, said Mr. Steiner, where the States are not able to provide the rule of law or meaningful national security, “then The opportunity for other players to become a part of this sport is growing exponentiallywe have seen it in Mali, we have seen it in Libya, we have seen it in the Horn of Africa”.
According to the interviews, the report also identifies factors that cause recruits to leave armed groups, such as unfulfilled financial expectations, or a lack of trust in the leadership of the group.
