{"title":"Insurgency and subversion: An analysis of the modes of operation for understanding the attacks in Cabo Delgado, Mozambique","authors":"Mauro Tiago Njelezi","doi":"10.1080/10246029.2022.2054719","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10246029.2022.2054719","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Resulting from several social, political, economic and above all radical Islamic factors, the armed conflict in Cabo Delgado raised a variety of questions in the national and international system, among them the modus operandi of the group, now called Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jammá. Thus, the present article analyses the way in which the modes of insurgency and subversion help to understand the modus operandi of the Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jammá. For this purpose, a methodological study was established in which the semi-structured interview technique involved officers and documentary analysis for data collection. The results of the study show that the modus operandi of the Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jammá is circumscribed to the organisation of numerous semi-autonomous cells which carry out guerrilla, terrorist and subversive actions. Furthermore, it was highlighted that the conflict was initiated by a minority of individuals subordinate to a radical religious ideology, and the objective of its operationalisation, until then, was carried out in three phases: preparatory, agitation and insurrection.","PeriodicalId":44882,"journal":{"name":"African Security Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-09-27","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42846973","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"State monopoly on urban transport system and human (in)security in Harare during the COVID-19 pandemic","authors":"Washington Mazorodze, Enock Ndawana","doi":"10.1080/10246029.2022.2114375","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10246029.2022.2114375","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This study discusses the human security costs and benefits generated by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic-induced state monopoly on the urban public transport system in Zimbabwe through the Zimbabwe United Passenger Company (ZUPCO) since March 2020. Using empirical evidence from Harare, it argues that the ZUPCO initiative had far-reaching safety and security implications on urban residents’ lives during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study found that though the ZUPCO initiative mainly benefited commuters through affordable fares, it had many human security costs. The costs included reduced safety and decreased and unreliable services, which exposed the commuting public to the risk of contracting COVID-19 and other security challenges. The state monopoly on urban transport exacerbated the social and economic impact of COVID-19, promoted inequalities, police corruption and urban residents’ use of informal transport services, which were unsafe and costly. The study concludes that the Zimbabwean government lacks the capacity to provide services in the urban transport sector, akin to nearly every sector in the country. As a stop-gap measure, the government is encouraged to regulate and allow private players to complement its efforts for the benefit, convenience, security, and safety of commuters until it develops an efficient urban public transport system.","PeriodicalId":44882,"journal":{"name":"African Security Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-09-05","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43711587","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Economic threat, new nationalism and xenophobia in South Africa: Some reflections","authors":"Darlington Mutanda","doi":"10.1080/10246029.2022.2109976","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10246029.2022.2109976","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The perceived economic threat has given rise to narrow nationalism in South Africa, which has given birth to direct, cultural and structural forms of violence, commonly referred to as xenophobia, which is actually Afrophobia. The main argument is that in as much as there is evidence of the influx of mainly African migrants in South Africa, and these have been largely accused of various crimes and contributing to rising unemployment, this perception trivialises the need for a multipronged and people-centred approach to South Africa’s and Africa’s underlying domestic challenges. Xenophobia should not be seen as only a South African but also an Africa problem, which consequently requires a national and continental response strategy. This then implies that South Africa has a role in stemming the challenges that have given impetus to a new form of narrow nationalism. On the other hand, the article attempts to explain what a continental response strategy might entail. In fact, the narratives of African migrants as pervasive criminals and job snatchers conveniently relieves the post-apartheid government which is expected to enhance service delivery and create opportunities for the locals, as well as giving dignity to the immigrants.","PeriodicalId":44882,"journal":{"name":"African Security Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47926576","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Linking the drivers of insecurity and security in Africa","authors":"Dries Velthuizen, Lisa Otto","doi":"10.1080/10246029.2022.2127659","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10246029.2022.2127659","url":null,"abstract":"In this edition our authors remind us that although the scourge of organised crime and political violence remains part of societies in Africa, popular views are not always helpful when it comes to finding solutions for sustainable peace and security. For instance, one popular perception is that illicit and criminal activities are always linked to political opposition and insurgency; another is that immigrants are the cause of violent crime in society. Although we accept the evidence that shows a link between the drivers of insecurity such as crime, political resistance and illegal immigration, research shows that this is not always the case in all spaces. However, what does show a strong correlation is the link between government-driven peace initiatives with local ownership, non-governmental organisations and non-violent political movements that bring agency to the quest for assured, sustainable peace. In their article ‘Piracy as a result of IUU fishing: Challenging the causal link’, Sasha Jesperson and Rune Henriksen demonstrate that illicit activities such as illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and piracy as organised crime can take place in the same space (in this case the Gulf of Guinea). However, although both piracy and IUU are drivers of insecurity, there is not necessarily a causal link between the two activities. Gwinyayi Albert Dzinesa, in his article ‘The Zimbabwe Peace and Reconciliation Commission: Towards an integrated national infrastructure for peace?’, presents a solution to security challenges which aims to overcome the limitations of the ‘statist, top-down approaches’ that are not sufficient to build peace. A mechanism such as the Zimbabwe Peace and Reconciliation Commission can be effective if it is part of a ‘broad peace infrastructure, weaving horizontal and vertical relationships with various local stakeholders with the assistance of international partners’. The principles of the initiative are national and local ownership, inclusivity, gender mainstreaming and cooperation and capacity-building for sustainability, with external support where necessary. In the same context, Simbarashe Gukurume emphasises non-violent resistance as a form of political opposition in his article ‘Youth and the temporalities of non-violent struggles in Zimbabwe: #ThisFlag Movement’. He points out that young people with ‘techno-savviness’ present agency and social navigation for mass mobilisation to defy a government in a nonviolent way. In his article ‘Peace agreements with no peace: A critical review of peace agreements in the Central African Republic’, Robert Kosho Ndiyun identifies the different ‘paths of peace’ available to societies. In this regard he identifies the sustainability of peace as an essential element of any pathway adopted by communities that aims to guarantee assured peace, prevent a reversion to conflict and authoritarian rule and create an opportunity to repair harm after violent conflict. Matthew Kimble and Sh","PeriodicalId":44882,"journal":{"name":"African Security Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44544719","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Piracy as a result of IUU fishing: Challenging the causal link","authors":"S. Jesperson, R. Henriksen","doi":"10.1080/10246029.2022.2049329","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10246029.2022.2049329","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT With declining global fish stocks, there is a growing literature on the negative impact of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. While undoubtedly damaging, there is increasing analysis on the wider impact of IUU fishing, without sufficient evidence to support causal claims. This is particularly evident in the links between IUU fishing and piracy. IUU fishing was blamed for the surge of piracy in the Gulf of Aden in in the late 1990s/ early 2000s and is more recently presented as a driver for piracy in the Gulf of Guinea. In reviewing available evidence, this article finds that while there is a correlation between IUU fishing and piracy in the Gulf of Guinea, in that they both occur in the same areas, current evidence does not support a causal link between the two.","PeriodicalId":44882,"journal":{"name":"African Security Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"49554539","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Private military and security companies: South Africa’s neglected resource","authors":"M. Kimble, S. Bosch","doi":"10.1080/10246029.2022.2104653","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10246029.2022.2104653","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Using the current conflict in northern Mozambique as a case study, we argue that the South African government and its current legislation on private military and security companies (PMSCs) has prevented it from being a more effective agent for peace in the region. South Africa’s current legislation – the Foreign Military Assistance Act of 1998 (FMA) and the Prohibition of Mercenary Activities Act of 2006 (PMA) – creates a situation, a deliberate and intentional one, where PMSCs are unable to operate effectively effectively. Therefore PMSCs do not operate from South Africa, despite South African PMSCs being well regarded and experienced internationally. The FMA and PMA also oppose a general international trend which is seeing increased use and acceptance of PMSCs. We argue that the conflict in northern Mozambique is an example where legislation which is more accepting of the PMSC industry would have allowed South Africa to provide more (and earlier) assistance to Mozambique. This would have helped Mozambique and the region, but, importantly, it would also have been a valuable tool in South Africa’s foreign diplomacy and projected the potential for the use of smart power.","PeriodicalId":44882,"journal":{"name":"African Security Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-07-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"43090529","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Peace agreements with no peace: A critical review of peace agreements in the Central African Republic","authors":"Robert Kosho Ndiyun","doi":"10.1080/10246029.2022.2086477","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10246029.2022.2086477","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Societies faced with authoritarian rule or conflict usually adopt different paths to peace. The course adopted by each community to guarantee stability determines the extent to which the sustainability of the peace can be assured. Every attempt to pacify a society should aim to prevent a relapse to conflict or authoritarian rule while considering the damage caused and sorting out measures to repair the harm. The history of military coups and conflicts in the Central African Republic (CAR) is well documented. Still, the attempted remedies have greatly side-lined the raison d’être of the responses in guaranteeing peace and preventing relapse to conflict. As the CAR remains politically and socially unstable, an analysis of the failure of peace agreements to ensure stability constitutes a field of inquiry that urgently necessitates a more profound investigation to save the country from recurrent hostilities and guarantee a peaceful society for the citizens. Peace includes an aspiration manifested by both the CAR authorities and non-state armed groups in the course of hostilities and on the negotiation table. Central Africans indicate an interest in peace, but such interest often manifested and materialised in peace agreements has barely been implemented.","PeriodicalId":44882,"journal":{"name":"African Security Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-06-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44537218","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"The Zimbabwe Peace and Reconciliation Commission: Towards an integrated national infrastructure for peace?","authors":"G. Dzinesa","doi":"10.1080/10246029.2022.2086475","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10246029.2022.2086475","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT The National Peace and Reconciliation Commission (NPRC) in Zimbabwe is potentially a crucial architect of coordinated and integrated infrastructure for peace (I4P). But it is not without its critics and sceptics. The Commission is the institutional centrepiece of government’s post-conflict justice, peace, healing and reconciliation programme. It is mandated with developing national and sub-national architecture to drive the peacebuilding agenda. The NPRC is relatively young and is in the process of emplacing structures to acquire the organisational capacity to execute its mandate efficaciously within major constraints. While statist, top-down approaches are hardly sufficient to build peace, the Commission is evolving into a broad peace infrastructure, weaving horizontal and vertical relationships with various local stakeholders with the assistance of international partners. The NPRC is leading Zimbabwe’s I4P project in a context-specific manner that promotes the principles of national and local ownership, inclusivity, gender mainstreaming, cooperation and capacity building for sustainability. The Commission, notwithstanding its well-documented weaknesses, has achieved important milestones towards a prospective integrated national I4P. This article broadens the existing literature on the NPRC by examining milestones in the implementation of its mandate, particularly demonstrating how it is morphing into a potential cornerstone of a broad national I4P with external support.","PeriodicalId":44882,"journal":{"name":"African Security Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-06-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"42132065","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Youth and the temporalities of non-violent struggles in Zimbabwe: #ThisFlag Movement","authors":"S. Gukurume","doi":"10.1080/10246029.2022.2086476","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10246029.2022.2086476","url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT Youth in fragile and conflict-ridden spaces are often constructed as violent and restless subjects who dismember the social fabric of society. Yet, many young people are using non-violent tactics and strategies to articulate their grievances and frustrations with the state of their economies. Young people in such decaying economies live under precarious and uncertain existential conditions. Drawing on the #ThisFlag movement in Zimbabwe, this article sheds light on the complex temporalities of non-violent resistance in post-colonial Africa and the place of social media in creating new and alternative forms of protest. The article examines the ways in which young people mobilising under the #ThisFlag movement deployed cyberspaces to launch concerted non-violent resistance against the Mugabe and Mnangagwa regimes. It also discusses various non-violent tactics the #ThisFlag movement deployed to tactically navigate the precarious terrain of political activism. I argue that young people instrumentalised their techno-savviness to mass-mobilise and enact novel and defiant forms of non-violent political action which posed a serious threat to ZANU-PF’s durable political hegemony. I also argue that #ThisFlag’s use of non-violent resistance should be understood as an exercise of agency and social navigation in a context of protracted violence against government critics and opposition political activists.","PeriodicalId":44882,"journal":{"name":"African Security Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-06-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46166913","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
{"title":"Human security: Countering harmful ideologies and dominant narratives","authors":"Lisa Otto, Dries Velthuizen","doi":"10.1080/10246029.2022.2090084","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1080/10246029.2022.2090084","url":null,"abstract":"Welcome to this edition of the African Security Review. In this issue, our authors offer a bouquet of contributions that highlight the centrality of human security from several perspectives. The real and potential harm of historical religions and ideologies that intentionally seek to harm other people, both physically and mentally, requires counter-narratives that emphasise the vital importance of human rights and other democratic freedoms. The importance of the projection of soft power in the political economy of what remains a liberal world, without importing or exporting regional geopolitical tensions, is such a counter-narrative to the violent nature of hard-power projection. What emerges from the work of our authors is the requirement for civil oversight, professionalism and protection of citizens in the unfortunate cases where the state decides to execute its mandate to wield the sword. In her article, ‘The liberation culture and missed opportunities for security sector reform in Zimbabwe: 1980–2018’, Annie Barbara Chikwanha found that Security Sector Reform (SSR) in Zimbabwe is political party orientated and deliberately focussing on technical capacity building and is not aligned with human rights principles or clearly expressing a human security paradigm. In the same vein, Sallek Yaks Musa and Lindy Heinecken analysed and evaluated the effect of military ‘(un)professionalism’ on civil–military relations and security in Nigeria, departing from the principles of military professionalism. The authors found that the lack of civil control of the Nigerian military compromises internal security, military effectiveness, erodes trust in the armed forces and therefore civil–military relations, contributing to the insecurity of citizens. Emma Etim, Otu Duke, Jacob Fatile and Augustine Ugar Akah in their article ‘Protest policing strategy and human rights: A study of End SARS protests in Nigeria’ demonstrated practicalities of how unprofessional armed forces complicates the management of protest action. The authors found that police response to peaceful gatherings as if all protest actions are riots, and failure to prevent violence at an early stage, leads to the escalation of protests into violence that could have been avoided. In his article, ‘Lies or half-truths? Boko Haram’s ideology from a social movement theory perspective’, Akali Omeni shows that ideological and political interpretation of religious scriptures to rationalise radical activism requires counter-narratives to expose ‘lies and half-truths’. Sammie Wicks and Caleb Weiss wrote on the ‘Evolution of Algerian influence in African Jihadist movements’ and pointed out that Algerian leaders continue to influence al-Qaeda’s senior leadership in jihadism in northern Africa and the Sahel, despite diminishing support for this ideology from a new generation of leaders. Oluwaseun Tella explained in his article ‘The political economy of soft power: South Africa’s neoliberal order and multinational","PeriodicalId":44882,"journal":{"name":"African Security Review","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2022-04-03","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"46465704","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}