Sub-Saharan Africa is ‘new epicenter’ of extremism, says UN

THE new global epicenter of violent Islamic extremism is sub-Saharan Africa where people are increasingly joining because of economic factors and less for religious ones, says a new report by the U.N.’s international development agency.

A significant increase of 92% of new recruits to extremist groups are joining for better livelihoods compared to the motivations of those interviewed in a previous report released in 2017, according to the UNDP report released on Tuesday.

Many Africans’ lives have been badly affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, high inflation, and climate change, said the report.

There has been a 57% decrease in the number of people joining extremist groups for religious reasons, it said.

Nearly 2,200 people were interviewed for the report in eight African countries: Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Somalia, and Sudan. More than 1,000 interviewees are former members of violent extremist groups, both voluntary and forced recruits, said