Jihadist Landscapes in North Africa

Dr. Canan Atilgan, Director of the KAS Regional Program South Mediterranean

Rear Admiral Kamel Akrout, First National Security Adviser to the Tunisian President

Participants of the workshops "Jihadist Landscapes in North Africa" in Tunis

Wolfgang Pusztai, Security and Policy Analyst & Chairman of the Advisory Board at the National Council on U.S.-Libya Relations, Jasmine El-Gamal, Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council, and Andrew Lebovich, Visiting Fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations (l.t.r.)

Participants during discussions at the workshop

Franck Peinaud, Security and Counter-Terrorism Advisor with the Delegation of the European Union to Tunisia

Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler, Senior Director of the Counter Extremism Project, Dr. Canan Atilgan and Franck Peinaud

Neila Feki, Vice President of the Tunisian National Counter-Terrorism Commission (CNLCT), Dr. Felipe Pathé Duarte, Assistant Professor at the Higher Institute of Police Sciences and Internal Security, Dr. Emna Ben Arab, Assistant Professor at the University of Sfax and Kathya Berrada, Research Associate at the Arab Centre for Scientific Research and Humane Studies

Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler and Brig. Mohamed B. Saleh, Libyan National Coordinator for Counter-Terrorism

Especially in light of the crumbling “caliphate” of the so-called Islamic State, the question of a post-IS jihadist reality in the region arises. Thus, a thorough understanding of the new threat landscape in North Africa is necessary to identify national, regional, and international approaches beyond military strategies alone. Against this backdrop, the KAS Regional Program South Mediterranean organized an international expert workshop entitled “Jihadist Landscapes in North Africa” on 8 and 9 November 2018 in an effort to outline relevant jihadist groups in North Africa, discuss their enabling conditions, and present an outlook of jihadist terrorist activity in the region.

The workshop explored the North African landscapes of threat from different government perspectives; addressed the revival of al-Qa’eda in the Islamic Maghreb and the strategy of the Islamic State in North Africa, debated the exchange of knowledge, weaponry, and personnel between militant groups throughout the region; outlined the major challenges presented by the backflow of high numbers of battle-hardened fighters as well as the need for reforms in the national criminal justice systems; and current approaches of international responses to jihadist terrorism in North Africa before elaborating on how international and European organizations can adapt their strategies to the changing threat landscape and assist North African states in combatting Islamist militancy in the region.