Terrorism and the Islamist challenge in the

North Africa remains afflicted by the spectre of terrorism and there are indications that the threat is on the rise. ¹ There is no state in the Maghreb region that has not experienced it. In the 1990s, Algeria was confronted with the use of terrorism as a tactic against the state and its representatives. Morocco and Tunisia to a large extent have managed to contain the immediate threat of terrorism, because of different historic and political trajectories. However, the incidence of terrorism is on the rise in the Maghreb. The worsening of socio-economic conditions in the region have stimulated the development and spread of terrorist recruitment networks in these and neighbouring countries. Furthermore, the political impasse in the Middle East between Israel and the Palestinians, as well as geostrategic interventions in Iraq and Afghanistan, by a coalition of actors including the USA, UK and their allies, has further fuelled the rise of political and radical terrorist movements in the Maghreb.