Israel’s Enemies are Africa’s Enemies

The Hamas murder of Clemence Mtenga

On November 18th, it was reported that the body of one of the hostages taken by Hamas on the fateful October 7th siege of Israel had been found. The body was that of 22-year-old Clemence Mtenga, a native of Tanzania. Clemence was one of 260 Tanzanians currently studying agriculture in Israel, part of Israel’s multidisciplinary training through MASHAV that dates back to the time of Foreign Minister Golda Meir. According to his sister, once his studies in Israel were complete, young Mtenga was going to start his own agri-business back home

Clemence will no longer be able to accomplish the goals he set out for himself. Hamas terrorists captured and killed him and still have some 240 hostages including another Tanzanian student, Joshua Loitu Mollel.

Hamas does not care about the skin color of those who were in Israel on October 7th. Like all Islamist terror groups, Hamas is interested in enforcing Islamic law (sharia) all over the world. Israel and the free world stand in the way of that goal, so Hamas (Boko Haram, Hezbollah, Al-Shabaab, Al Qaeda, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, etc) seeks to destroy and remove us in order to reach their goals. This we know.

What tends to get missed in this fight is the fact that the terror that Israel is battling is the terror that continues to plague Africa. Islamist groups who have either pledged allegiance to the Mullahs in Iran or received funding from said Mullahs, are slaughtering people all over the continent. According to counter-terrorism experts, Africa is the new global hotspot for Islamic terror.

In an article entitled Africa: The New Front Line Against Jihadi Terror, studies are showing that by the end of 2023, Islamic terrorist groups in Malawi would have killed about 8600 in the country which would be a 137% increase from the previous year. The article continues:

The violence has spread throughout the countryside, encircling the capital, Ouagadougou, and threatening to sever it from trade routes. More than 6,000 schools have been closed, and at least 800,000 people are in effect living under what the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies calls “a militant Islamist group siege”. More than 2-million people, or 10% of the population, have been internally displaced, overwhelming aid organisations and the government alike.

While all eyes, and most headlines, remain fixed on terrorism in the Middle East, Africa has quietly overtaken it as the epicentre of terrorist groups affiliated with or motivated by Islamic extremism. Since 2018 the annual number of fatalities attributed to terrorism in Sub-Saharan Africa has exceeded those in the Middle East and North Africa.

According to the global terrorism index, just under half of all terrorism-related deaths in 2022 occurred in Sub-Saharan Africa. During the year to end-June fatalities tied to militant Islamist groups spiked by 50%, according to the Africa Centre for Strategic Studies, surpassing the peak of 2014 when Boko Haram’s violence in Nigeria was at its most lethal.

We at IBSI have discussed this at length in previous articles, forums, panels, and other platforms. The other layer that is incredibly crucial to this fight against terror is how anti-African these Islamic groups truly are.

From centuries of slave trading Africans to even the slave origins of the Afro-Palestinians who reside in Gaza, Islamist leaders have always had a disdain for Africa and Africans. Even today, in 2023, the term often used for a Black person in Arabic is abeed which means slave. The Islamist mindset is to subjugate and rule all of Africa, just like it has much of North Africa and the Middle East from the 7th century. And as has been happening for the past couple of decades now, the Islamic Republic of Iran has its tentacles in much of Africa. An excerpt from the linked article entitled, Report: Iran’s Terrorist Network in Africa and Its Implications says:

The Iranian regime has prioritized “exporting revolution” to countries with a Muslim population. African countries with their internal crisis and Muslim populations have been a prime target. The Iranian regime, either directly or through its Hezbollah terrorist proxy group, has expanded its influence across the continent, mainly south of the Sahara. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards (IRGC) and Hezbollah have established a strong foothold in Africa, and their activities there accelerated in the early 2010s and reached a new height after 2018.

The article quoted above is from 2021, and Iran’s incursion into Africa has steadily increased. This should be concerning to everyone given not only Iran’s sponsoring of global terror but its treatment of its own people. Iran’s treatment of Jews after 1948, and their treatment of Christians in the country today would clearly indicate that they are no true friend of Africa, no matter how many inroads they try to make; especially considering the fact that the vast majority of the continent of Africa is Christian.

Islamist groups like the Iranian regime seek to expand across the African continent and the world — like an imperialist power. They continue doing this while perpetuating the propaganda that Israel is the imperialist, despite Israel being the only country in history that has returned land that it conquered in exchange for peace multiple times. The reason Arab leaders perpetuate this lie is to take attention away from their goals of global domination. What happened to Israel on October 7th is happening all over Africa. No entity is more responsible for this rise in terrorism and violence than the Islamic Republic of Iran.

The State of Israel has battled existential threats since declaring independence in 1948. And though this particular war could go on indefinitely, Israel will ultimately be victorious. What the rest of the world is failing to understand is that Israel’s fight is our fight. The same terror visited upon Israel on October 7th has supporters and fanatics all over the world. When it comes to Africa specifically, Israel’s enemies are Africa’s enemies, and Africa's enemies are Israel’s enemies.

This is part of why Israel has freely shared its counter-terrorism efforts with any country that is willing to learn, including many African countries. In addition to helping end food and water insecurity, Israel has the best expertise in combating terror from her 75 years of being literally surrounded by enemy countries bent on destroying her. Any leader would be wise to take what Israel has to offer.

Clemence Felix Mtenga was taken hostage and murdered by Hamas, backed by Iran, and sustained by our silence. Israel will recover, and African countries that continue to work with the Jewish State will emerge stronger from these difficult times.

The Western world would do well to remember Israel's preeminent role in the fight against Islamist tyranny. Our survival depends on it.