1995 Patterns of Global
Terrorism
U.S. Department of
State
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 attacksùprimarily kidnappingsù 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/Australianùall employed by the Swiss-owned Sierra Leone Ore and Metal Company (Sieromco)ùwere 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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