Preventing Violent Extremism in East Africa

The Institute for Security Studies published in September 2019 a report titled "Preventing Violent Extremism in East Africa: Lessons from Kenya, Somalia, Tanzania and Uganda" by Isel van Zyl and Maram Mahdi.

The report examined initiatives to prevent and counter violent extremism in East Africa to establish their objectives, target groups, activities, theories of change, evaluation approaches, donor organizations, and funding amounts.

Illegal Fishing In African Waters

The African Center for Strategic Studies published on 6 June 2017 a report titled "Criminality in Africa's Fishing Industry: A Threat to Human Security" by Andre Standing.

The report discusses the global exploitation of the African fisheries sector. It contains useful information on Chinese fishing in African waters. For example, an estimated 64 percent of China's annual catch from 2000 to 2011 came from West African waters.

China's Response to Terrorism

The U.S. Center for Naval Analysis published in June 2016 a 186 page report titled "China's Response to Terrorism" by Murray Scot Tanner and James Bellacqua.

While there are only about a dozen references to Africa, this is an excellent compilation of the terrorist threat faced by China and its response both domestically and internationally. It contains the following chapters:

--An Overview of China and Terrorism

--Beijing's Perceptions of an Evolving Terrorist Threat

--China's Policies toward Counterterrorism

--China's Counterterrorism Bureaucracy

--International Cooperation

--U.S.-China Counterterrorism Cooperation

China's Response to Importation of Illegal Timber

Chatham House published in December 2014 a study titled "Trade in Illegal Timber: The Response in China" by Laura Wellesley, a research associate at Chatham House.

The report concludes that the government of China has made notable progress in its efforts to tackle illegal logging and the associated trade.  It has also developed guidance for Chinese companies operating overseas to promote sustainable forest products trade and investment.  Nevertheless, illegal trade remains a significant problem.

Since 2000, there has been a marked increase in high-risk imports of high-value hardwood logs, particularly rosewood, from the Mekong region and African countries such as Mozambique, Benin, The Gambia, and Ghana.  Another cause for concern is the continued, and in some cases increased, import of logs into China from countries in which a log export ban is in place--namely, Equatorial Guinea, Ghana, and Cote d'Ivoire.

A Chinese translation of this report is also available.

Somali Piracy

The German Institute for Economic Research (DIW Berlin) published a report in November 2012 titled "Barrgh-gaining with Somali Pirates." The authors are Olaf J. de Groot, DIW Berlin, and Matthew D. Rablen and Anja Shortland, both of Brunel University.

The study concludes that ransoms paid to Somali pirates are drifting upward and negotiation times are increasing, yet there is huge variation in bargaining outcomes across ship owners. The authors found that ransom amounts and negotiation length depend on the observable characteristics of both pirates and ships and on the reference ransom established by previous ransom payments for a specific ship type. International naval enforcement efforts have driven up the ransom amounts.

Click here to read the report.