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U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE
1996 APRIL: PATTERNS OF GLOBAL TERRORISM, 1995
Office of the Secretary
Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism, Philip C. Wilcox, Jr.
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AFRICA OVERVIEW
CONTENTS
Ten international terrorist attacks occurred in Africa last year, down
from 24 during 1994. Ethiopia was the scene of an attempted
assassination of visiting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak by members of
an Egyptian terrorist group. Other attacks - primarily kidnappings -
occurred in Angola, Chad, Sierra Leone, and Somalia.
The United Nations Angola Verification Mission (UNAVEM) was attacked by
unknown perpetrators on 11 November. Two handgrenades were thrown into
the UNAVEM III campsite in Cabinda city, seriously injuring one
Bangladeshi police observer and damaging the facility.
On 18 March, an American UN worker, a Malian, and two Chadians were
kidnapped in the city of Mao by the Movement for Democracy and
Development, an armed Chadian opposition group. The US citizen was
released on 27 March.
Ethiopian counterterrorist forces foiled an assassination attempt
against visiting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on 26 June. Mubarak
had just arrived in Addis Ababa to attend the Organization of African
Unity (OAU) summit when several members of the Egyptian extremist al-
Gama'at al-Islamiyya (also known as the Islamic Group, or IG) attacked
his motorcade. Ethiopian forces killed five of the attackers and
captured three others. Ethiopia and Egypt have charged the Government of
Sudan with complicity in the attack and harboring suspects and pursued
the matter in both the OAU and the United Nations.
On 26 February, unknown assailants threw two grenades into the USAID
compound in Addis Ababa, damaging the facility's windows and three
vehicles. No one was injured.
The Revolutionary United Front (RUF) took several foreigners hostage in
the first half of 1995 in an apparent attempt to force foreigners out of
the country. On 5 January, a Swiss national working for a French-owned
lumber firm was taken hostage. On 18 January, two Britons, a German, a
Swede, and a dual Swiss/Australian - all employed by the Swiss-owned
Sierra Leone Ore and Metal Company (Sieromco) - were kidnapped. On 25
January, six Italian nuns and one Brazilian nun were taken hostage. The
seven nuns were released on 21 March, and the others were released on 20
April. On 23 May, three Lebanese businessmen were abducted.
On 30 April, a foreign businessman was kidnapped and killed near the
southern port city of Chisimayu, probably by radical Islamic extremists
as a political statement against the presence of foreigners.
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