Towards “modern” counterinsurgency in Sub-Saharan Africa: lessons learnt from Nigeria and Mozambique

Jakub Zbytovsky and Jan Prouza

Small Wars and Insurgencies, 2024, vol. 35, issue 2, 256-283

Abstract: This article investigates counterinsurgencies in Sub-Saharan Africa, especially those opposing insurgencies with an ethnic and/or sectarian character. Using a most-similar method of case selection, we select the cases of counterinsurgencies in Nigeria and Mozambique, which we examine in an exploratory way. We analyse the existing literature on counterinsurgency strategies and investigate possible problems with their application to contemporary Islamist insurgencies in Sub-Saharan Africa. Adopting trends and information from case studies as well as from the theoretical principles explored in several studies regarding the US counterinsurgency campaign in Iraq, we propose a new theoretical model of a possible counterinsurgency strategy for Sub-Saharan countries against ethnic and/or sectarian insurgencies. This model combines practices from classical counterinsurgency theory with suggestions regarding the ethnic and/or sectarian background of the particular insurgents and specific factors of the region of Sub-Saharan Africa. In conclusion, we discuss the broader issues of African counterinsurgency and propose a possible future enhancement to the model and its replicability for other cases.

Date: 2024
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DOI: 10.1080/09592318.2023.2298707

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