23/09/2013
Rogelio Alonso, tenured lecturer of Political Science, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos
The magnitude and brutality of the terrorist attack in Nairobi have deeply affected international public opinion, thus achieving the effect sought by the Islamist terrorists of Al Shabaab, responsible for it. Its strength enables it to challenge the Somali government which fearfully realises its inability to control part of Somalia. Its threat also looms over Kenya and Ethiopia, since it seeks to dominate territories in all these countries in order to impose some sort of Islamic caliphate.
The enormous impact caused by the savage crime has served to draw attention to a terrorist group that has ties with Al Qaeda and that, unfortunately, has had a remarkable success recruiting activists in Europe and the United States. In recent years it has developed an intense outward propaganda strategy that has helped it attract several hundred individuals with European and American passports from the Somali diaspora. It is believed that some Nairobi terrorists were from the U.S.
This terrorism has also other international dimensions. Two years ago, the head of the British intelligence service MI5 warned of the danger posed by the individuals trained by Al Shabaab and with terrorist experience in Africa who might try to replicate it on the streets of Britain.This, together with the brutal victimisation of human beings like in this one, illustrates the multiple dimensions of this terrorist phenomenon and its serious implications for many African nations, but also for Western democracies.