Terrorism in Sub-Saharan Africa: The Missing Data

Abstract

Although the situation is improving, terrorist incidents in sub-Saharan Africa appear to have been underreported in the media and under recorded in the existing database. This situation results in part from the fact that media coverage of events in other parts of the world has been greater. Media outlets in Africa are fewer and less well-funded. It also has been dangerous to cover groups involved in terrorism. Some data is unreported because conventional definitions of terrorism exclude activities sponsored or tolerated by governments that should be included for the region (and other regions of the world as well). Terrorism has been less frequent because dissidents in the region can still rely on ‘coups d’etat’, insurgencies and guerrilla activity to achieve political power; thus, they do not have to rely on terrorism as a primary technique.