How information technology became a powerful tool for provoking armed conflict in any African state
The issue of peace and security remains one of the key challenges facing African countries and an obstacle to sustainable development. Protests in Africa vary in nature and intensity. In some states, they have escalated into protracted civil wars, while in others they have been less deadly.
All wars on the African continent fall into one of four categories:
- Inter-ethnic conflicts. These are caused by the fact that virtually all African states, with few exceptions, are multi-ethnic and the peoples living on their territories encounter contradictions that come to be resolved by force of arms.
- Border conflicts, caused by the fact that in most African countries, national borders do not coincide with the borders of settlement which separate tribes and nationalities, because the European colonizers, when they divided Africa, did not take into account the borders between the ancient territories of different peoples.
- Religious conflicts associated with the rise of Islamic fundamentalism and extremism.
- Socio-economic conflicts. Many countries in Africa have socio-economic problems that are a source of growing protest.
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Information technology, especially social networks and artificial intelligence, is a powerful tool capable of igniting armed conflict in virtually any state on the continent.
For example, social networks can serve as a convenient means of communication between protesters. In Cameroon, the conflict between the French-speaking and English-speaking regions escalated sharply in 2016. As a result, on October 1, 2017, the Federal Republic of Ambazonia (FRA) declared independence and formed an interim Ambazonian government, which Cameroon’s central authorities, predictably refused to recognize.
It should be noted that social media played an important role in the outbreak of the conflict, as it was used by the transitional government to promote independence and connect with supporters outside Cameroon. In an attempt to limit the use of this resource, access to the internet in in the country was restricted for six months.
Terrorist groups operating in Africa are also actively integrating advanced technology into their daily activities. This has even given rise to the concept of “terrorism 2.0”. Boko Haram, for example, actively uses drones for surveillance, which are reportedly more advanced than those used by the government. Al-Shabaab uses social media to spread its message. As a result, the group has been accused of “Twitter terrorism” and hate speech, leading to the closure of a number of its Twitter accounts.