When Islamist terrorists belonging to Somalia's Al-Shabaab group raged the Westgate mall in Nairobi last weekend, they knew they were attacking a high-profile icon of Kenya's financial power in growing Africa.
The Israeli-built Westgate mall presenting multiple levels of shops, cafes and restaurants exemplified the African customer bonanza that is attracting foreign investment, from West and East, to one of the world's rapidly thriving continents.
Like the Algerian gas plant hit by Saharan Islamic militants in January, the beige-coloured Westgate mall became a high-impact target for extremists to slaughter dozens and spread terror as they increasingly practice cross-border jihad, challenging Africa and the world at large.
From Nigeria to Kenya, Mali to Algeria, violent and aggressive Islamist factions - knocking into local poverty, clashes, disparity or exclusion but advocating a parallel anti-Western, anti-Christian dogma - are attacking at state authority and international activities, both at financial and political level.
A former US ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell, said he thinks militants like those who rebelled in Mali last year, the Nigerian Boko Haram Islamist sect and the Westgate mall attackers were also to a certain extent stimulated by annoyance with what he termed as "pervasive mal-governance" in Africa.
He said “This is undoubtedly anti-Western and anti-Christian but it also taps into a lot of deep popular anger against the political economy in which they find themselves, in which a very small group of people are basically raking off the wealth.”
Campbell focussed on a shady side of the ‘Africa Rising’ story, where rising societal disparity and tensions in apparently booming nations were being overlooked or covered by optimistic economic growth numbers that twisted the true image.
He acclaimed that more than 60 victims of the mall strike comprised members of the elite society from Kenya, not to mention nephew of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and overseas expatriates.
Reportedly, a senior analyst for Africa of the Eurasia Group consultancy, Mark Rosenberg said the Nairobi attack would add to the risk profile for Africa. This was always a ‘jumpy’ barometer because there was ‘an unfortunate tendency to treat the continent as one country’.
Yet, he saw no ‘structural risk’ from the African Islamist uprising to the development trend on the continent over the last decade.
The Israeli-built Westgate mall presenting multiple levels of shops, cafes and restaurants exemplified the African customer bonanza that is attracting foreign investment, from West and East, to one of the world's rapidly thriving continents.
Like the Algerian gas plant hit by Saharan Islamic militants in January, the beige-coloured Westgate mall became a high-impact target for extremists to slaughter dozens and spread terror as they increasingly practice cross-border jihad, challenging Africa and the world at large.
From Nigeria to Kenya, Mali to Algeria, violent and aggressive Islamist factions - knocking into local poverty, clashes, disparity or exclusion but advocating a parallel anti-Western, anti-Christian dogma - are attacking at state authority and international activities, both at financial and political level.
A former US ambassador to Nigeria, John Campbell, said he thinks militants like those who rebelled in Mali last year, the Nigerian Boko Haram Islamist sect and the Westgate mall attackers were also to a certain extent stimulated by annoyance with what he termed as "pervasive mal-governance" in Africa.
He said “This is undoubtedly anti-Western and anti-Christian but it also taps into a lot of deep popular anger against the political economy in which they find themselves, in which a very small group of people are basically raking off the wealth.”
Campbell focussed on a shady side of the ‘Africa Rising’ story, where rising societal disparity and tensions in apparently booming nations were being overlooked or covered by optimistic economic growth numbers that twisted the true image.
He acclaimed that more than 60 victims of the mall strike comprised members of the elite society from Kenya, not to mention nephew of Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and overseas expatriates.
Reportedly, a senior analyst for Africa of the Eurasia Group consultancy, Mark Rosenberg said the Nairobi attack would add to the risk profile for Africa. This was always a ‘jumpy’ barometer because there was ‘an unfortunate tendency to treat the continent as one country’.
Yet, he saw no ‘structural risk’ from the African Islamist uprising to the development trend on the continent over the last decade.
