Mitigating violent extremism in Southern Africa

The document argues that mitigating violent extremism in Southern Africa requires leveraging the youth demographic, who are both victims and perpetrators of the insurgency in Mozambique's Cabo Delgado province. It highlights that youth vulnerability to radicalisation is driven by governance deficits, poverty, and marginalisation. The brief recommends that the Mozambican government, SADC, and the AU move beyond military responses to include youth-led interventions such as interfaith dialogue, policy advocacy for empowerment, and support for the reintegration of former fighters.

• Youth in Southern Africa are highly vulnerable to violent unrest as both victims and perpetrators because they view peace and security through the lens of governance deficits, specifically when the state fails to deliver socio-economic necessities.
• The insurgency in Mozambique's Cabo Delgado province is deeply rooted in grievances related to governance deficits, including perceptions of marginalisation and deprivation, despite the region's wealth in natural gas, gold, rubies, graphite, and timber.
• South Africa has served as a recruitment ground for ISIS, with some recruits as young as 15 years old; a 2015 study indicated the country was a cost-effective recruitment source because recruits from average-income families could self-fund travel to Iraq or Syria.
• Youth-led groups can mitigate violent extremism through five specific roles: promoting interfaith dialogue, advocating for youth empowerment policies in northern Mozambique, engaging local youth through peace clubs and vocational training, preparing for the demobilisation and reintegration of former fighters, and reporting on the insurgency's impact.
• Youth contributions to countering violent extremism in Mozambique are hindered by external challenges, including state monopoly over the response, press censorship, and travel bans to Cabo Delgado, as well as internal challenges like inadequate funding and a lack of P/CVE training.
• There is a lack of integrated youth participation in regional security frameworks; the author argues that SADC must develop a formal youth, peace and security agenda aligned with its Regional Counter-Terrorism Strategy.

APA

Kujeke, M. (2020). Mitigating violent extremism in Southern Africa. Institute for Security Studies. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/tfp-pb-4.pdf

Chicago

Kujeke, Muneinazvo. Mitigating violent extremism in Southern Africa. Institute for Security Studies, 2020. https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/tfp-pb-4.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Kujeke |first1=Muneinazvo |title=Mitigating violent extremism in Southern Africa |publisher=Institute for Security Studies |date=September 2020 |url=https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/tfp-pb-4.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{kujeke2020mitigating, author = {Kujeke, Muneinazvo}, title = {{Mitigating violent extremism in Southern Africa}}, institution = {Institute for Security Studies}, year = {2020}, month = sep, url = {https://issafrica.s3.amazonaws.com/site/uploads/tfp-pb-4.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }