African Countries Struggle to Contain Terror Groups - Report

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Amid a decline in terror incidents worldwide in 2017, African countries struggled to prevent the expansion of terror groups in parts of the continent, according to a U.S. State Department report on terrorism.

"African countries expanded their efforts to develop regional counterterrorism solutions while they struggled to contain the expansion of terrorist groups, affiliates, and aspirants involved in attacks or other activities in 2017," according to the report, released last week.

Experts offer different explanations as to why terror groups have been able to expand in the continent.

Jacob Zenn, a terrorism expert with the Washington-based Jamestown Foundation, said he believes that when it comes to ideology and development, the former should be given more attention.

"When it comes to extremism, intolerant religious teachings need to be countered. If not, jihadists would exploit intolerance and encourage people to express grievances through violence," Zenn said. "Thus, countering the ideology must be paramount.

"Naturally governing better is important, too, but in most cases that will be a long process and tackling jihadist groups is an imminent concern," he added.