Al-Qaeda imefanya shughuli na kutoa mafunzo kwa wanachama barani Afrika. Imejumuisha mashambulio kadhaa ya mabomu huko Afrika Kaskazini na kuunga mkono vyama katika vita vya wenyewe kwa wenyewe huko Eritrea na Somalia. Kuanzia 1991 hadi 1996, Osama bin Laden na viongozi wengine wa al-Qaeda walikuwa wamekaa Sudan. "Al-Qaeda involvement in Africa", Covert History Wiki (in English), archived from the original on 2021-07-18, retrieved 2021-07-18  Daniel Byman. Al Qaeda Is Alive in Africa (en-US). Foreign Policy. Iliwekwa mnamo 2021-07-18. Schmitt, Eric; Dahir, Abdi Latif (2020-03-21), "Al Qaeda Branch in Somalia Threatens Americans in East Africa — and Even the U.S.", The New York Times (in en-US), ISSN 0362-4331, retrieved 2021-07-18  Al Qaeda and U.S. Policy: Middle East and Africa.