Poor Border Controls, Alleged Corruption Among Reasons for Rise of Terrorism in Tanzania

Video Screen photo of terror suspect who ridicules the Tanzania police

Video Screen photo of terror suspect who ridicules the Tanzania police

By TZ Business News Staff.

 

Heads of Tanzania's Inter-Agency Counter-Terrorism Centre. From Top: Chief of Tanzania Defence Forces Gen. Davis, Mwamunyange, Director of Tanzania Intelligence and Security Services, Othman Rashid, Inspector General of Tanzania Police, Ernest Mangu

Heads of institutions in Tanzania’s Inter-Agency Counter-Terrorism Centre. From Top: Chief of Tanzania Defence Forces Gen. Davis Mwamunyange, Director of Tanzania Intelligence and Security Services, Othman Rashid, and Inspector General of Tanzania Police, Ernest Mangu

The attack of police stations across Tanzania resembling  acts of terrorism [in the recent past] are not linked to the Somali group Al Shaabab as some have feared, a South African military affairs website has reported, quoting analysts in Kenya. These attacks were likely to be ‘copycat’  terror attacks committed by ‘lone wolves’ who share Al-Shabaab’s world view.

But a foreign intelligence report  available publicly identifies links between some Tanzanian  Muslims to the Somali militant group.The intelligence report partly attributes the rise of terrorism acts in Tanzania to corruption in the law enforcement agencies and the lack of effective border control.

In a rare public comment on matters of national security, President Jakaya Kikwete, revealed [recently] that terrorists may have been behind attacks on several police stations in the country that left 10 officers dead.

While the police deny any foreign connection to the attacks, a video circulating online, [indicates] Al-Shabaab may have been involved.  But some analysts doubt whether the group was directly involved.  [In the video, a man wearing a black mask speaks  perfect Tanzanian Kiswahili  and declares the Tanzania police ineffective].

“My sense is [it’s] not Al-Shabaab but rather copy cats, lone wolves, people/groups who share Al-Shabaab’s world view,” says Abdullahi Boru, a Nairobi-based Africa Security Analyst for Amnesty International.

The African Landforces Website report says the  peace which Tanzania has enjoyed since independence is in obvious danger now, with initial signs pointing to a nation walking on the footsteps of the Nigerian experience.

The drip, drip, drip, then eventual eruption of Boko Haram in Nigeria over the last few years has concentrated the world to the dangers of ignoring early signs of terrorism across Africa.

One minute Boko Haram was being underestimated by the president as a bunch of disaffected thugs committing robberies and individual attacks, the next thing they were killing thousands of people and pledging allegiance to ISIS,

Some East African countries have endured a spate of terrorist attacks over the last few years, but the region’s second biggest economy Tanzania has largely been a beacon of stability and peace in the region.

This has traditionally been the case even though a larger share of Tanzania’s population (35%) is Muslim than neighbors Kenya (7%) and Uganda (12%).

Al-Shabaab, the Somali militant group, has struck fear in Kenya and Uganda with deadly attacks that have killed hundreds of people. In 2013, the group claimed responsibility for the Westgate Mall attack in Nairobi that left 69 people dead. In 2010, 74 World Cup fans were killed in a Kampala sports bar by a bomb blast linked to the militants. This month of April, 2015, the terror group has killed 148 people at Garisa University in Kenya.

These attacks, analysts argue, may be blowback for Kenya and Uganda’s military intervention in Somalia aimed at shoring up the government that struggles to contain the group.

Tanzania declined to be a part of the African Union-backed operation, with some officials believing then that the decision would inoculate the country from the threat of al-Shabaab. But recent pronouncements by senior government officials suggest  that terrorism may be a growing threat in the country.

Security experts say Al-Shabaab as a force has been severely diminished. Paul Hidalgo, writing in Foreign Affairs argues that “with the head of this autocracy now dead, and other senior leaders either marginalized, arrested, in hiding, or executed, the chances that al Shabab [sic] will live on as a cohesive force are marginal at best.”  However, what is keeping analysts up at night is the potential that the group’s violent extremist ideas will metastasize in other East African countries, such as Tanzania.

“The message of the group, as is with other Jihadi group[s] has a degree of resonance within the region, Tanzania included. Let’s not forget, Tanzania was hit like Kenya in the 1998 embassy bombing, “Boru said.

 Over 200 people died in those twin attacks orchestrated by Al-Qaida. Local Tanzanians aided Osama bin Laden’s efforts to bomb the U.S. Embassy in Dar es Salaam, according to U.S investigators.

Meanwhile, Tanzania’s home affairs Minister Mathias Chikawe told the BBC that he believed Mohammed Emwazi, the alleged ISIS militant otherwise known as “Jihadi John” intended to commit “acts of terrorism” inside Tanzania when he traveled [here] in 2009.  While Emwazi was refused entry, Mr. Chikawe believes “[he] must have wanted to do some terrorist acts. I think maybe they wanted to harm us.”

In 2013 Kikwete told a Kenyan newspaper that Tanzania’s security agencies helped stop a planned attack against Kenya. Speaking to the Kenyan daily, the President said, “we had to deal with some groups that wanted to disrupt the Kenyan elections; they were trying to hide here and we had to arrest them before the Kenyan elections but these are issues that we always deal with quietly.”

More recently, pockets of attacks in Zanzibar and the northern region of Arusha have raised fears that the peace Tanzania has enjoyed since its independence is in danger of being disrupted.

With these latest revelations, a pattern can be gleaned that suggests the threat of terrorism is real in the country. Regional analysts say the rise of separatist ideas in Zanzibar and youth unemployment in the country as a whole could be used by Islamists as a recruiting tool for their cause, something that African security agencies acknowledge is a real problem.

“We cannot overstate the stability of Tanzania in a region that has been bedeviled by civil war and now terrorism,” Boru says. “However, that peace could be threatened by transnational jihadi groups who will exploit long standing [grievances], especially in the Zanzibar coast, and even the main land.

A  report by the US Bureau of Counter-Terrorism  available publicly  identifies cases of  Muslims in Tanzania with links  to the Somali group Al Shabaab. The report identifies mobile money transfers as a challenge which has created a possible conduit for terror financing. Corruption is also reported a factor contributing to the increasing threat of terrorism in Tanzania.

Since the bombing of the U.S. Embassy in July 1998, Tanzania has not experienced any other major terrorist attacks. However, the al-Shabaab attack at the Westgate Mall in Kenya served as a reminder that the threat in the region remains.

Tanzania has an interagency National Counterterrorism Centre (NCTC). This organization has reported concerns over escalating radicalism, corruption, and inadequate border security, according to the public intelligence report. The threat of terrorism in Tanzania is real.

On May 5, 2013,  an explosion outside of a Catholic church near Arusha killed three and injured over 40 gathered for the church’s consecration. Shortly after the explosion, President Kikwete released a statement calling the incident “a terrorist act.”

Suspected Tanzania terrorists

Suspected Tanzania terrorists

Legislation, Law Enforcement, and Border Security:

Regulations related to Tanzania’s  2002 Prevention of Terrorism Act were drafted in 2011 and published in August 2012 as the Prevention of Terrorism Regulations 2012. These regulations establish  the Police and  Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) as the institutions which will collect and respond to reports of terrorist activity. The regulations also formalized the process for freezing assets,  categorizing a person to be a suspected terrorist, and sharing information between government agencies.

But  analysis reveals Tanzania’s law enforcement capacity needs improvement. While the Interagency Unit  is made up of officers from Tanzania  Intelligence and Security  Service(TISS),  the Tanzania Police Force, Tanzania People’s  Defense Forces (TPDF),  The Immigration department, and Tanzania Prisons—organizations which  work collectively on counterterrorism issues in Tanzania–the Center lacks specialized equipment, especially for securing the borders, and had large unfulfilled needs such as training in advanced intelligence analysis and crime scene investigation.  This is the assessment made by a foreign intelligence organization whose report is public .

The report says moreover, Tanzania’s  law enforcement  is affected by corruption. The 2013 Transparency International  (TI) report ranked Tanzania’s police, judiciary, and tax agency the most corrupt government organizations  in the East African Community.

Meanwhile, the inter-agency  counter  terrorism centre  reports  makes the assessment that violent extremism is on the rise throughout the country. Examples of related law enforcement actions include the following:

On October 7, 2013 in Mtwara Region’s Makolionga Forest, Tanzanian Police arrested 11 men ranging in age from teenagers through their late 30s. The police reported the men as followers of a violent extremist imam who had been forced out of a mosque in Zanzibar and another in Mtwara. He and his followers reportedly conducted unarmed training and possessed al-Shabaab propaganda. Local villagers informed the police about the suspicious activities of the group and the arrest was made.

On October 23, 2013  at Lulago village, within the Kilindi-Handeni area in Tanga Region, a People’s Militia member was killed by a group of men suspected of being violent extremists. Police conducted an investigation and arrested four men in relation to this incident.  Also on October 23, in the neighboring village of Lwande, the Officer in Charge of the police station at this area was shot by another suspect who was also arrested.

During subsequent investigations, police learned from local villagers about a violent extremist group which apparently ran a ‘madrassa’. Police went to the madrassa and encountered numerous women and children. The men had run away. The police recovered some violent extremist materials and learned that the leader was conducting martial arts training for the students at this village in the Kilindi-Handeni area. Police arrested the leader. It turned out parents from the village entrusted their children to the ‘madrassa’ so they could obtain an education but were unaware of the violent extremist teachings which were conducted in the Muslim class.

The report by the US Bureau of Counter-terrorism says Tanzania shares borders with eight countries and lacks sufficient resources to adequately patrol those borders. The larger border posts and airports have passport security control, including access to ‘watch-lists’.  But that cannot be the case in the more rural and coastal regions as their borders are considered porous due to shortages in manpower for patrolling and because electrical power is unreliable or absent – leaving posts without access to communications networks.

According to the Tanzania inter-agency Centre, several Tanzanian youth were arrested on illegal immigration charges in Kenya. Once returned to Tanzania, NCTC officers interviewed the young men and reported that they were crossing Kenya en route to Somalia with plans to  join  al-Shabaab training camps.

Proof terrorism was taking root in the country came from  President Jakaya Kikwete who admitted  in early March, 2015,  police stations had been attacked by thugs and people believed to be terrorists during the previous 12 months.  Police stations which were attacked during the previous 12 months included  those at Newala in Mtwara region,  where three “weapons” were looted,  Ikwiriri police station in Rufiji district, where seven “weapons” were forcibly taken and Kimanzichana police station in Mkuranga district where five “weapons” were taken by the alleged terrorists (two of the weapons belonged to the police force while  three belonged to civilians who had deposited  the weapons at the police station for safe keeping).

Other attacks took place at Ushirombo police station in Bukombe district where 18 “weapons” were stolen and at Pugu Machinjioni in Tanga district where three guns were forcibly  taken from police officers  on duty.  The president said  there were two attacks against the police in Songea district, but no “weapons” were taken.

The fiercest of  the attacks took place at Amboni caves in Tanga, where the army had to be called in to flash out thugs hiding in cave with machine guns and hand granades.  Police were acting on a tip off the thugs who had forcibly taken guns from patrol poplice in Tanga were hiding in the caves. When the police went to the caves, a war bigger than they could manage erupted and the army had to be called in. Three army officers and three police officers were injured but the thugs escaped through an unseem vent out of the cave.

Tanzania's riot police, from the Field Force Unit attempt to arrest terrorists holed up in a cave in Tanga region in February, 2015.

Tanzania’s riot police, from the Field Force Unit attempt to arrest terrorists holed up in a cave in Tanga region in February, 2015.

A total of seven police officers have lost their lives in the combined incidents, the President said, adding that it has become more and more important  that civilians work closely with  defence and security organs to report any criminals they may know of before or after terror attacks. This co-operation wii go a long way in securing the country, he said.

He thanked all those who provided information which has led to all the arrests made, explaining that  it was investigations as well as the co-operation accorded to security personel by civilians which had made it possible to capture the culprits and to regain a large number of the looted weapons.

All the 18 guns taken from Ushirombo police station had been recovered and 10 people associated with the incident arrested.  All the other weapons had also been recovered, with the exception of one gun in Tanga but investigations were continuing to recover that gun as well.

 The Struggle to Contain Terrorism

The counter-terrosism document on Tanzania concedes, however, that some  effort is being made to deal with this problem.  In 2013,  training for the a counter-terrorism component  linked to finance kicked off.  Tanzanians to work  in the Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU) received  US funded  training on computer forensics and anti-corruption . The course was sponsored by the US Department of Justice.

Through the U.S. Department of State’s Anti-terrorism Assistance program,  the Tanzania  law enforcement community also received training and  equipment to build capacities in the areas of border security – particularly maritime security – investigations, and crisis response.

In the meantime,  mobile banking services such as Mpesa and AirtelMoney which have continued to expand rapidly in Tanzania to serve the formerly underserved rural areas to formal banking, but this  development has also created new  terrorism financing vulnerabilities in the financial sector.

The central bank of Tanzania estimated that the equivalent of US $650 million is transferred each month through such mobile transfers. The Financial Intelligence Unit  received 68 suspicious transaction reports in 2013, a significant increase from 2012.

The counter-terrorism  bureau report  advises that non-profit organizations must declare their assets when initially registering with the government, but also notes that their assets are not subsequently reviewed on a regular basis. In November [2013], a prominent businessman was arrested for providing financial support to al-Shabaab in Kenya.

Countering Radicalization to Violence and Extremism:

The NCTC is interested in starting community awareness programs to educate citizens on how to identify and report terrorist activities, and increasing training for the local police on community policing strategies and the appropriate use of force. Police leadership on the mainland and in Zanzibar has shown a keen interest in developing community policing programs.

The problem of terrorism in Tanzania therefore appears to call for multifaceted  actions to resolve:  the actions include the careful watching of mobile money transfers to avert terrorism financing,  fighting corruption in the law enforcement agencies, the involvement of civilians in identifying terror suspects and reporting the same to appropriate authorities  and increased training of the police on community policing.