Al Qaeda recruits in Africa

Mr. Menkhaus told lawmakers that al-Shabaab's influence is growing because it is seen by the local population as a viable alternative to a government in disarray, notorious for corruption and whose security forces are a law unto themselves.
"Al-Shabaab is not strong, it has numerous internal divisions, but it is the only player on the playing field and so it is strong mainly as a function of the [government's] weakness," he said.
The Horn of Africa faced civil war, internal political turmoil, interstate war, famine and manmade humanitarian crises for decades. The region also is highly vulnerable to terrorist attacks.
In Sudan, the government's active support for terrorist groups in the 1980s and 1990s increased the problem. Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden found safe haven in Sudan where he developed the initial idea of al Qaeda, Arabic for "the base."
Al Qaeda terrorists attacked U.S. embassies in Africa - Kenya and Tanzania - in 1998.
U.S. counterterrorism efforts in Africa have produced some results.
In September, U.S. forces in southern Somalia killed Saleh Ali Saleh Nabhan, an al Qaeda leader in Kenya described by Western intelligence as one of three people involved in planning the attacks on the U.S. embassies.
In Ethiopia, an authoritarian government tightened its grip on the country after an election in May. In the months leading up to the vote, opposition candidates were harassed, tortured and in some cases killed.
Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's ruling party and its allies won more than 99 percent of the parliamentary seats.
Leslie Lefkow, a senior researcher in the Africa division of Human Rights Watch, testified that the election was a "milestone in the broader agenda and strategy of consolidating control."
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