Africa-Press – Seychelles. The threat of the Islamic State (IS) grows every day in Africa and the continent could be “the future of the caliphate”, warned, Wednesday (10), an African security expert at the UN Security Council.
According to CNN, Martin Ewi said that the Islamic State “expanded influence beyond measure” in Africa, with at least 20 countries directly feeling the activity of the extremist group and more than two dozen “being used for logistics and mobilization. of funds and other resources”.
“Some countries are regional centers of the Islamic State and have become corridors for instability in Africa,” said Ewi, who coordinates the Transnational Project on Organized Crime at the Institute for Security Studies in the South African city of Pretoria.
The expert, who was previously responsible for the African Union Commission’s Counter-Terrorism Program, said that the Lake Chad Basin, which borders Chad, Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon, is the largest area of operation for the extremist group, which certain areas in the Sahel are now “ungovernable” and that Somalia remains IS’s “hot spot” in the Horn of Africa.
A recent attempt to take over or destabilize Uganda failed, but Ewi indicated that an Islamic State affiliate, the Allied Democratic Forces, “remains a serious threat.” In addition, he added, Central African IS has transformed parts of Congo and Mozambique in “human slaughterhouses”.
“Terrorism has been brought to Southern Africa and no international coalition with Western countries has been created to fight Daesh on this continent, it means that Africa will bear the consequences of the extremist fighters who are fleeing Syria in search of safe havens” , stressed the expert.
Ewi also pointed to several other factors that have made Daesh “so successful in Africa”: “the presence of natural resources that allow groups like Daesh to finance themselves; poverty and lack of political will to deal with the Palestinian issue, which are the main sources of “radicalization” for many young Africans; and the ability of Daesh itself to work with other terrorist and criminal groups on the African continent”.
The Islamic State, also known by its Arabic acronym Daesh, invaded much of Syria and Iraq in 2014 and established the Islamic Caliphate in these locations, characterized by brutal treatment of populations.
The group was formally declared defeated in Iraq in 2017 after a bloody three-year battle with foreign troops that left tens of thousands dead and cities in ruins. However, its cells continue to launch attacks in different parts of this country and Syria.
Lack Of More Combat Initiatives
The expert also cited the absence of new initiatives in Africa to combat terrorism and the “ostrich approach”, that is, the refusal to face reality or recognize the truth of many countries that ignored early warnings of terrorist threats.
“We are seeing this phenomenon occurring in Benin and Togo, which are the last countries on the African coast to suffer concentrated attacks from Daesh and other terrorist groups”, so Western countries should help these countries more before the situation gets worse. out of control,” said Martin Ewui.
The Security Expert recalled that, “before when extremists invaded Mozambique and later expanded into Nigeria and Cameroon “the responses were inadequate”
To defeat Daesh in Africa, he explained, “the strategy must also encompass the fight against Al-Qaeda and other criminal groups, its allies”.
Martin Ewui urged the UN Security Council to mobilize equipment and funds to strengthen operations to combat extremist groups and apply sanctions to all entities and individuals that support the promotion of terrorism.
At the same event, the head of the UN Counter-terrorism area, Vladimir Voronkov, also alerted the Security Council to the growth of Daesh offensives since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic, in early 2020. A senior United Nations official said the Iraq-Syria border “remains highly vulnerable, and around 10,000 IS fighters operate in the region”.
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