Iranian-backed terrorists act to destabilize Africa

Media coverage of the Iran nuclear deal occasionally refers to Hezbollah as Tehran’s anti-Israel proxy. But the influence of the Lebanon-based “Party of God” is broader than that.

Calling for the United States to “effectively help African governments,” Sen. Chris Coons (D-Del.) wrote for Politico in May, “We cannot take our eyes off another region where violent extremists are wreaking havoc: Africa.”

But we have indeed taken our eyes off Africa. Hezbollah, designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. government in 1995, has been increasingly active across the continent. So have other Iranian-connected Shi’ite Muslim terror threats. This means that Boko Haram—a Sunni Muslim movement that has pillaged, kidnapped, and murdered its way through Nigeria and into neighboring countries—is not alone.

In Coons’s words, the dangers these Sunni groups foment “are not and cannot” be Africa’s “to face alone.” But news coverage of the danger posed by Shi’ite Muslim terror groups in Africa has been sparse. Most Americans may be unaware of the threat.

In Africa, illicit arms trading, drug smuggling, and even the illegal ivory trade often bear Hezbollah’s fingerprints. The group’s expanding efforts to fund its intercontinental terror network fuel local and regional instability and violence.

In May 2013, three Hezbollah operatives were arrested by Nigerian security forces who said the men had been planning an attack. Nigeria’s public prosecutor, Simon Egede, said the three were found with enough weapons—ranging from rifles to land mines to anti-tank rocket launchers—to “sustain a civil war,” the Jerusalem Post reported at the time.

In June of that year, the U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned four Lebanese nationals for recruiting and fundraising for Hezbollah in Sierra Leone, Senegal, Gambia, and the Ivory Coast. And Hezbollah inspires others.