The definition of terrorism shifts at academia and policy level, however, the East Africa Terrorism Database (EATDB) defined terrorism and summarized the terrorist threat to the East and Central Africa region as follows. Terrorism is the use of violence against unarmed civilians and their property for the purposes of intimidating or to create a generalized pervasive fear for the purpose of achieving or furtherance of political and social objectives which are largely ideological, economic, or religious.
International and Domestic terrorism in East and Central Africa are at their deadliest and EATDB forecasts show they’ll remain persistent threats to regional security for a decade and beyond. These groups, their motives, and methods are evolving dramatically complicating analysis and counter terrorism. Today the threat posed by terrorism is grave, they are able to strike convectional militaries and unarmed civilians anytime and anywhere, an indicator of their high degree of proficiency with more sophisticated weapons and paramilitary tactics.
We define radicalization to violent extremism as the process through which an individual adopts an increasingly extremist set of beliefs and aspirations to an extent he or she willingly joins a fundamentalist Islamic extremist group and subsequently condones, participate, support, facilitate or use violence to further political, ideological, religious goals.
The process of radicalization into violent extremism (RVE) is complex whereby extremism is an expression of goal commitment, the zeal represents a direct expression of commitment to a focal goal and deviant behaviors (violence) are indirect expression of this.
Radicalization does not equate with terrorism and many terrorists are not deeply ideological and may not "radicalize" in any traditional sense. Understanding the underlying phenomena of radicalization and the sequence of the trajectory towards terrorism is the core of EATDB.
Countering Terrorists and Violent Extremism is a collective effort. We are consistently researching and constructing robust and pragmatic CT & CVE strategies to combat the evolving and persistent threats. Our aim is to provide policy makers, state actors, and the general public with ideas that maybe important in understanding and combating terrorism and violent extremism in East and Central Africa.
The East & Central Africa Counter Terrorism Database is an open-source database intended to provide CT Analysts and Operators, datasets of terror events in the region since the 1970's to date. Operators and analysts can exploit the data to predict threats, understand radicalization and the terrorist attack cycles.
Say something if you see something. Terrorists and extremists are insular in nature thus difficult for law enforcement to identify and disrupt. You can play a key role in combating terrorists by reporting behavior and statements that may indicate a person or group is mobilizing to violence against innocent civilians or state officers. We share such information with law enforcement agencies to prevent terrorism. Report terrorism suspect here.
