Abstract
Insurgency and miscellaneous organized violence have been rising sharply on the African continent. What is driving these attacks? Drawing on case studies in Mali and Somalia, this chapter interrogates the sociological drivers of the insurgent activities, characteristics of insurgent groups, and impact of responses by state actors vis-à-vis organized violence in selected countries. The qualitative analysis shows that state fragility has increased the lethality of insurgencies and the organized violence perpetrated by armed groups such as al-Shabaab in Somalia. As the Somali state continues to show an inability to coordinate a cohesive counterinsurgency response, the development of factional rebel forces has further emboldened al-Shabaab. The state fragility in Mali was exploited by al-Qaeda–affiliated jihadi groups to perpetrate acts of violence in defense of radical Islam. Both cases offer sociologically fascinating contexts for understanding the dynamics of armed insurgencies in Africa.