Africans debate impact of Osama bin Laden killing

For many Africans, the war against terrorism began on African soil.

It started with the dual car bombings of the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania on Aug. 7, 1998, three years before the 9/11 attack in the United States. Suicide bombers killed 213 people in Nairobi and 11 people in Dar-es-Salaam, almost simultaneously.

Small wonder, then, that Kenya's leaders were among those to congratulate the United States for its reported killing of Al Qaeda founder Osama bin Laden on May 1 in Abbottabad, Pakistan.

“Kenyans are happy and thank the US people, the Pakistani people, and everybody else who managed to kill Osama," Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga told Reuters. President Mwai Kibaki called it “an act of justice” for the people of Kenya who lost loved ones in the 1998 attack.

IN PICTURES: Osama bin Laden death: reaction

But elsewhere on the African continent, the news of Mr. Bin Laden’s death was met with a mixture of skepticism, joy, and alarm. For some chatting over social media forums like Twitter, it was a sign that America was finally learning the art of slow, patient intelligence work. For others, and particularly those jaded by years of muscular us-versus-them propaganda, the US operation was a demonstration of its overreaching military power and contempt for rules of sovereignty.

Typical is this exchange that occurred on Twitter this morning: "well done to the US for sorting out bin Laden," tweeted South African radio talk show host Kieno Kammies, prompting the reply from Twitter user ORapscallion, "Ja but was it necessary to kill a few 100k innocents in the process?"

Little connection to Africa's militant threats

The death of one man will have little practical impact on a continent where small local groups are capable of doing damage far beyond their numbers.

“I don’t think the possibility of an attack has increased because of bin Laden’s death,” says E.J. Hogendoorn, the Horn of Africa director for International Crisis Group in Washington. Indeed, bin Laden’s death may actually deflate the interest of African extremist groups such as Al-Shabaab in aligning themselves with Al Qaeda.

But countries such as Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda, and even Burundi, all of whom have been involved in the fight against Al Shabaab and other Islamist militias in the wartorn country of Somalia, all face the threat of potential attacks, Mr. Hogendoorn adds.

“Kenya is a soft target, and terrorists select soft targets in any country. I think all Western-aligned countries are concerned about militant attacks from [small elements within] the Somali diaspora community.”

IN PICTURES: Osama bin Laden death: reaction

Wary of US unilateralism

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