{UAH} Task in Africa

Task in Africa

18 December 2013

Hours after British Prime Minister David Cameron announced 'mission accomplished', after a surprise visit to Helmand province in Afghanistan, one of his former military generals cast aspersions and said the world is still not free from Al Qaeda and its likes. 

Cameron had earlier said that the British troops could leave the war-torn Southwest Asian country with their 'heads high', and that a basic level of security had been achieved. But Sir David Richards, a former head of the British armed forces, said that Britain needed to learn from what it had done and failed to do. Bringing to the fore the issue of militancy in Sub-Saharan Africa, the general said that it could be an outcome of flawed policies in Libya, where the French and British collaborated to bring down the regime of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, and armed militant outfits.

The manner in which arms were distributed in Libya have had an aftermath. Factional fighting is on the rise in the North African country, and associate militant groups elsewhere in East Africa are on the rampage against their respective governments. No different is the case of Afghanistan, which has been balkanised. General Richards probably also had Somalia in mind, where the African Union troops have been battling with Al Shabab, the militants who came to global prominence with the attack on a Kenyan shopping centre earlier this year. So are Mali, Chad and the Central African Republic.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon has already said that the rise of militancy in Africa is a grave threat to world peace, and the issue needs to be addressed. Carrying forward Gen Richards's assessment, it is time for Britain and other major powers to explore a political option to end militaristic tendencies.

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Gwokto La'Kitgum

"Even a small dog can piss on a tall Building", Jim Hightower