U n NDP: jihadist groups have ties to religion, young people join the cause of poverty

For years Khadijah Hawaii Gambo has struggled with an unpleasant question: What exactly leads young African Muslims to Islam in the grip of jihadist organizations like Boko Harami, respectively?

Many young Nigerians are as frustrated as they are desperately looking for escape”, the Nigerian human rights activist said in an interview with DW.

“However, most cannot escape become more angry, frustrated and aggressive towards society”, she added.

Gambo is a Muslim and comes from the central Nigerian city of Jos, which last year became the site of bloody attacks carried out by the Islamic terrorist organisation “Boko Haram”, the “Deutsche Welle” reported, broadcast Periscopi.

Since 2011, more than 17,000 Nigerians became victims of jihad terror.

Some 2.8 million people, especially in northern Nigeria, have been forced to flee their homes as a result. Gambo is terrified of many suicide attacks often carried out by juveniles on behalf of the radical interpretation of Islam that Boko Harami preaches.

UN study: Not Motivated by Religion

Nigeria is just one of many African countries that have the presence of Islamic terrorist groups in their country. Besides Boko Haram, who operates in northeastern Nigeria, another militant group al-Shabab has fought for years to gain control of Somalia.

A branch of al-Qaeda, among other things, is active in Mali. According to the United Nations, between 2011 and 2016, some 33,000 people in Africa were victims of extremist violence.

A UN report also found that young Muslims in Africa were less likely to radicalise by religious motivation than by poverty and lack of opportunity.

For her study “Entremism in Africa”, the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) spent two years interviewing about 500 former members of radical groups across the continent.

Khadija Hawaja Gambo read the 128-page study and agrees with the authors' findings. She believes that those who truly understand Islam know that radical interpretations of groups such as Boko Haram are deeply non-Islamic.

The less one person knows about Islam, the more they are inclined towards the ideology of terrorist organisations”, Gambo said.

Study The UNDP seems to support Gambo's theory: This research found that 57 percent of those questioned knew little or nothing about Islamic religious texts. According to research findings, six years or more religious education reduces the likelihood of radicalisation to 32%.

Youth sensitive to extremist rhetoric

The most typical inscription for such organisations is not a religious fanatic who requires the foundations of his beliefs, but a frustrated “person who has been isolated and feels left behind”, summarizes the report's authors.

They also found that extremist rhetoric fell on fertile soil when it came to young people who had no opportunity to move forward in the poorest and most remote regions of Africa. One such example is al-Shabab, who has been recruiting war fighters for Somalia civil war since 2006, not only in its country but also in neighbouring states. The group's stated goal is to create an Islamic theocracy in the African horn and participate in a world-wide <x0-war”.

“Young people have been promised jobs and money, and they have created the opinion that they will be better off joining these groups and that they will be able to support their families”, said Salma Himid of Africa's Mamba Hakki Human Rights Organisation.

Radical Islam: A very sensitive subject

Although Khadijah Hawaja Gambo agrees mainly with UN study findings, she says poverty is only one aspect of a very complex problem. There are people in Boco Haram because they take money for it, but there are people who are there because they think it's satisfying to Allah. We have to deal with these people”. It's very sensitive./Periscopi/