Trends of Terrorism Activity in Relation to Internet Accessability Throughout the Sahel Countries of Africa

For most of the developed world, the Internet plays an important role in everyday life. It is the primary infrastructure used for business, academics, social life, and many other societal institutions. However, many developing parts of the world, especially Sub-Saharan Africa, still lack reliable access to the Internet. Despite the Internet’s many positive attributes, it provides a breeding ground for nefarious actors. Terrorists have successfully used the Internet to spread propaganda and recruit followers, primarily through social media. Research has shown a relationship between rates of Internet usage, and increased terrorist activity in the Western world. As vulnerable developing nations gain more accessibility to the Internet, terrorists will likely try to capitalize on the newfound access to these hard-to-reach audiences around the world. This study seeks to identify what the effect increased Internet accessibility has on terrorist activity, as experienced in the Sahel region. Because access to the Internet is still extremely limited in most of the Sahel region, identifying trends early on may help defend against this threat as the Internet becomes more readily available to the region in the future. This quantitative analysis found that there was a strong positive relationship between these variables for the selected sample of Sahel countries analyzed. This information may be useful in educating policymakers on future threats that effective foreign policy and military aid can help proactively counter