Lessons from France’s response to terror

Kenya: Africa watched in awe as France, supported by the World’s super powers united to condemn and hunt terrorists who attacked satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo killing 12 people.

Within two days, three of the terrorists who killed a total of 17 people were dead. One still on the run, but identity known.

French President Francois Hollande accompanied by 50 Heads of State and government officials led 1.5 million people around Paris in tribute to the 17 victims of the terrorist attack.

Around the same time in Nigeria, militant group Boko Haram killed more than 2,000 villagers in Baga in the North of the country, a move an angry catholic archbishop Ignatius Kaigama of Jos, central Nigeria tells BBC makes the country “seem helpless.”

In Kenya, killers of over 60 people in Mpeketoni, Lamu remain faceless and at large six months after the heinous act. And the blood has not dried in Mandera where 64 people died in twin attacks. The list is long, including last weekend when gunmen riding on a motorbike hit Maximum Revival Centre church in Majengo, Mombasa killing the pastor.

The gunmen have joined the list of faceless killers who seem to vanish into thin air.

Compare this to how France acted after the attack on Wednesday, January 7 at about 11am (AFP first reported that shots had been fired at the weekly magazine on Boulevard Richard Lenoir at 10.58am).

By 11.31am, according to the Irish Times, Hollande was set to visit the scene. By 11.46am, France was put on a high terror alert. Three minutes later British Prime Minister David Cameron condemned the attack. America would do the same at 12.38pm. (Secretary of State John Kerry was first to convey White House condolences, with President Barrack Obama later giving an address and promising his government’s support).

Then a massive manhunt comprising of the police and military was immediately launched. By nightfall, according to the Interior minister Bernard Cazeneuve, 88,000 police and soldiers had been deployed throughout France. Of this 9,650 scoured Paris, patrolling airports, train stations, schools and newsrooms.

Kenyan security analyst and former soldier, Mbijiwe Mwenda says of the deployment, “France realises that there is no mean enemy too small that it doesn’t take all your energy.”

One of the terrorist’s identity card found in the abandoned getaway vehicle helped in the identification of brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi. The third terrorist was Amedy Coulibaly who held hostages at a Jewish supermarket in Eastern Paris in a bid to stop French police from killing the brothers.

But about 53 hours after the attack on the journalists according to Bloomberg, the three would die in a hail of French Special Forces bullets, in a simultaneous operation, the brothers at a printing factory in Dammartin-en-Goele, 35km from Paris, and Coulibaly in the supermarket. Coulibaly’s partner, 26-year old Hayat Boumeddiene is on the French police wanted list.

The attack put French President on the world map as decisive and sensitive according to media reports. In Africa, the archbishop from Nigeria would capture the feelings of many. Kaigama hit the world headlines after he accused the West of not showing the same fervour in tackling the threat of Boko Haram as they had demonstrated in France.

He told the BBC Newsday programme referring to the Baga massacre, “It has saddened all of Nigeria. But...we seem to be helpless. Because if we could stop Boko Haram, we would have done it right away. But they continue to attack, and kill and capture territories...with such impunity.”

Kenyan security analyst, Richard Miriti the author of The Threat of Terrorism in East and Central Africa says that Kenya, which is battling the Somali based militants, Al Shabaab should not shy away from seeking for help. “Kenya should swallow humble pie and ask for direct assistant from major world powers. I would not mind a negotiated US army base in Kenya in return for joint anti-terrorism operations.”

In the meantime, Mbijiwe feels that the country should learn from the way France handled the crisis, including televised addresses by the president and the interior minister.

“It is also impressive how the authorities identified the terrorists and within minutes, their pictures had been released to the public. We need such intelligence.”

As Miriti suggests that Kenya should shift the military and police headquarters to the porous border with Somalia to better handle the terrorism threat, Mbijiwe thinks “we should unleash all our power to deter future attacks.”