The Islamic State, al-Qaeda-linked groups, Boko Haram and other jihadist movements are protagonists in many of the world’s deadliest crises, complicating efforts to end them. We examine the evolving threat posed by these groups – both in warzones and in other places where they recruit fighters or perpetrate terrorist attacks. Our work – including our 2021 series The Legacy of 9/11 and the "War on Terror" – draws on years of field research across the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Europe. Through in-depth and comparative analysis of these groups’ tactics, strategy and ideology, and of the local conditions and wider geopolitical currents that have enabled their growth, Crisis Group aims to inform policies on how best to tackle or contain the threat.
In conjunction with clan militias, the national army has dislodged the Islamist insurgency Al-Shabaab from swathes of central Somalia, marking a breakthrough in the fifteen-year war. As its campaign proceeds, Mogadishu should take steps to strengthen its hold on the territory it has retaken.
Al-Qaeda does not currently have the ability to perpetrate large-scale attacks in western countries, nor the intention.
Jailbreaks and prison riots were a central component of IS resurgence in Iraq and are a serious threat in Syria today.
As long as the election cycle and current tensions [in Somalia] drag on, the attention of the political elite will be more inwardly focused, while other priorities lag be...
When the political elite [in Somalia] are focused on each other, attention turns away from the battle against al-Shabab.
Unfortunately, while in much of the world 9/11 is viewed as in the past, in Africa, the legacy of those attacks lives on.
If France is to withdraw [from the Sahel] in a drastic manner as the U.S. did [from Afghanistan], the balance of power is likely to shift in favor of the jihadists.
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