(smc) Sudan has been recognized and respected by African countries as a leader in its intelligence services and capabilities. Thus, member states of the Committee of Intelligence and Security Services of Africa (CISSA) chose it to host a number of courses, workshops and conferences, the latest taking place this month.
This was the result of Sudan’s active role in the gathering of the African intelligence services, its clear history in supporting the African liberation movements and the adoption of the issues of the continent, as well as Sudan’s human and institutional capabilities and the credibility and ability of the National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS) to read the events and their consequences.
In order to clarify the bases on which CISSA was established, NISS Director-General, 1st Lt. General Engineer Mohamed Atta Al-Mawla Abbas stressed, during one of the sessions hosted by Sudan, the importance of the role of the African intelligence services as it serves as a sensor for their countries in order to plan for the future in the political, economic, social and other aspects, noting that the regional situation requires African efforts and solidarity for further cooperation and coordination among African organs, saying.
Atta said, “Let us stand united in front of the modern colonialism, which came in a new manner to invade Africa in its open markets and natural resources and became turnout for the west, we call for Africa to stand up as it is the continent of the future and has become maker for events and information.”
In February, President Omer Al Bashir witnessed the laying of the cornerstone of the headquarters of CISSA, in the presence of a number of African heads of state participating in the 28th African Summit in Addis Ababa, where this event was a profound milestone, as it put CISSA on the threshold of a new phase, especially as it became the main arm that will provide the African Peace and Security Council and the African Union Commission with all the information they need, where they had received them from non-credible sources.
The committee found great interest in past years alongside the desire for coordination and cooperation with it.
In this context, the Conference of the Directors of the African security and intelligence services under the theme: “Comprehensive Strategic Partnership towards Combating Terrorism and Realizing Political Stability in Africa”, which will be held in Khartoum from 24 to 30 September.


CISSA Tackles Terrorism


The conference represents an opportunity for African security directors to discuss the phenomenon of terrorism in all its dimensions, especially as the continent has been greatly hurt by the continuation of wars and the activities of terrorist groups. Recent studies indicate that with the pressure on terrorist groups in Syria and Iraq, their operations are escalating in other regions, including North Africa and sub-Saharan Africa, due to the return of some elements of terrorism from Iraq and Syria to that region.
In addition to increasing the pace of military operations in Libya, especially in the east, carried out by the national army against terrorist groups, terrorist operations have increased in the region at a significant rate in the last six years, with the number of victims rising from less than two hundred to several thousand, according to several studies, where some of them were published by the HIS Foundation. According to these studies, the number of bloody attacks by militant groups in Africa doubled between 2009 and 2015 several times. In 2009 the Center for Studies of Terrorism and Armed Movements recorded 171 armed attacks in a number of African countries resulting in the death of 541 people. In 2015, the number rose to 738 attacks, resulting in 4,600 deaths. According to these figures, the number of attacks witnessed 200 percent increase, while the death toll rose by 750 percent.
The militant groups active in Africa are Boko Haram, Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and Al Shabab Movement, the most visible and prominent groups on the African scene. However, there are other groups that play a role in this arena, such as the movements of Ansar Al-Din, Uqba ibn Nafie, Tawhid and Jihad, Daish organization in Libya.
The CISSA conference, which will discuss comprehensive strategic partnership for combating terrorism and realizing political stability in Africa, can be described as a serious attempt to discuss these issues with a purely African perspective and to develop the treatments emanating from the continent itself not imported from the West.
Expert on the African affairs, Hemdi Abdel Rahman sees, in a study titled “Africa and the Trap of Terrorism”, that the Western mind is still captive to its self-centered cognitive vision, it always tends to double standards in many things, including issues of intellectual extremism and terrorism, where terrorist attacks in Africa do not receive attention from international public opinion, as at the same time of the Paris attack, the Nigerian city of Baga witnessed a bloody massacre at the hands of the Boko Haram gangs, in which about 150 civilians and soldiers were killed, but no one raised the slogan of “All of Us are Baga” in comparison to the slogan “We are All Charlie”.
The study showed that the Western reaction to the terrorist incidents in some African countries does not exceed the issuance of travel warnings, or prevention of travel of Western citizens to these places, as unsafe, a position that reflects the Western hypocrisy and double vision to deal with terrorism issues.


Developing Laws


Referring to the recommendations of the Regional Workshop on the phenomenon of mercenaries, foreign terrorist fighters and negative NGOs, and its impact on the security and stability in Africa held by CISSA in Khartoum last April, it included a number of important points that indicate the development of security concepts in Africa, where it included enact of laws that aim to tackle these phenomena by developing anti-terrorist strategies, joint border operations and effective and multi-faceted regional cooperation in information sharing among African intelligence systems, as well as design of a database among the members of mercenaries and foreign fighters of terrorists and negative non-governmental organizations and the establishment of financial intelligence units to monitor its financial secrecy transfers.
So, CISSA has developed a practical framework for information and intelligence cooperation between the countries of the continent, which enables Africans to rely on themselves in dealing with the threats that face the continent.