Broad NATO-led coalition to try to stop ISIS’s determined advance in Africa

Two years have passed since the last summit of the International Coalition Against Islamic State -ISIS-, a group made up of more than 80 countries and created to defeat the terrorist organization in the regions they dominated in Syria and Iraq. The pandemic and a certain laziness passed the time far beyond what was safe. When foreign ministers met again yesterday in Rome, they saw that the danger of Islamic extremism persisted as before their self-proclaimed caliphate was defeated and disrupted on Syrian-Iraqi territory, but now had spread to a much larger area of ​​Africa, from sub-Saharan countries to Mozambique.

Islamic State would always have around 10,000 fighters spread across the desert and rebel enclaves in Syria and Iraq. But with the fall of his caliphate in 2017, many other activists joined affiliated groups in Libya and the Sinai Peninsula. From there the expansion began until Chad, Niger and Mali and continued south. In the last few months achieved major victories in Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique.

Terrorists from the Nigerian Islamist group Boko Haram became world famous for the kidnapping of 276 girls from a school in the city of Chibok in 2014. It was then the African branch of the Islamic State. Its leader, Abubakar Shekau, was also known for his particular brutality and penchant for not obeying the leaders of the Middle East organization. They ended up breaking the alliance and their former comrades in arms they were looking for him to assassinate him. And that is precisely what happened a few weeks ago. The order came from ISIS leaders in Syria. Shekau was “too violent” even for them who beheaded dozens of people for no reason. their men immediately allied with Iswap (Islamic State Province of West Africa) and pledged obedience to ISIS. From that moment they grew strong and controlled the Sambisa jungle region in the northeast of the country.

Iswap has since recruited former Boko Haram commanders into its ranks and convinced them not to view Muslims living outside the areas they control as an enemy and an apostate, as Shekau believed. The new leader, Abu Musab al-Barnawi, is much more moderate and believes that we should follow the example of what happened in Syria: control the territory and try to create provinces of the caliphate. In recent days, he has sent out “fatwas” (religious orders) to admit Nigerian government passports and other documents as proof of identity, opened up grazing areas to local peasants, released detainees and started collecting religious taxes to the inhabitants of the areas it controls. From there it also reinforced the rear for thousands of kilometers to the border with Libya as well as parts of Benin and Ghana.

Although strategies differ depending on local conditions, the group’s new commitment to create “de “Jihadist governance” it becomes a huge challenge for weak, corrupt and inefficient national authorities, ”according to Vincent Foucher, expert on Islamic extremism at the French National Center for Scientific Research. “For an organization like Daesh (the acronym for Islamic State in Arabic), It is in sub-Saharan Africa that you can make a big impact with a minimal investment of resources.. It is one of the few places in the world where it actually controls an area of ​​several thousand square kilometers. It’s a border for them, ”Foucher explained in an interview with The Guardian.

And as they brutally did in the Middle East Caliphate before, ISIS affiliates impose Sharia, 14th-century Quranic law, barely step into new territory. In Mali, in a town near the Nigerian border, fighters amputated the hand and foot of three men convicted by an Islamic court of stealing passengers from a bus. The punishment was carried out in the middle of a communal market in front of a large crowd. There are records of similar incidents in northern Burkina Faso, where ISIS has started an expansion. “This is its characteristic. Islamic State where it raises its black flags enforces law and order, its public order under the most extreme conception of Islamism, and which is welcome in many communities ravaged by gangs of criminals and murderers and without any kind of state protection, ”wrote Rida Lyammouri, analyst at the Policy Center for the Nouveau Sud in Morocco.

The insurgent Islamist forces increased their presence in Mali thanks to two parallel situations. On the one hand, there is the disorder generated by the latest military coup in Bamako, the capital, which overthrew President Ba N’Daou. On the other is the partial withdrawal of 4,000 French soldiers who have been stationed in the country for a decade as part of an international mission to stop the spread of insurgent Islamist groups. Faced with uncertainty, many regional leaders conclude agreements with organizations affiliated with the Al-Qaeda terrorist network. The latest example is in the town of Niono, 340 kilometers from Bamako, where extremists promised to minimize violence against regional communities if they were allowed to preach and if women were forced to wear the veil.

The Central African Province of Isis (Iscap) subsidiary, which operates in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Mozambique, seems to favor brutal coercion above all. There are reports of massacres of entire communities for the sole reason of having been previously conquered by rival groups. Last week, at least 50 villagers were killed in two senseless attacks on the Congolese plain, according to research group Kivu Security Tracker. In Mozambique, Islamist insurgents flying the black ISIS flag continue to de facto control much of the troubled Cabo Delgado province. In this country, according to the United Nations, in 2020 there were more than 500 terrorist acts which left some 3,000 dead and at least 670,000 displaced.

At the Rome summit, chaired by Italian Foreign Minister Luigi Di Maio and US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, it was agreed to use the same tactics that have been used successfully in Syria and Iraq to combat African Islamists: local forces as well as NATO commandos sweeping areas of territory controlled by the insurgents. The declaration was signed by 40 foreign ministers present and new members such as the Central African Republic, Congo, Mauritania and Yemen, who joined the other 79 states. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and EU Foreign Minister Josep Borrell have followed suit. “We strongly support Italy’s initiative to ensure that the coalition focuses its expertise on Africa, while keeping his eyes wide open on Syria and Iraq, ”Blinken said in yet another demonstration of the United States’ return to international operations after the break imposed by the Trump administration.

The other issue addressed by the foreign ministers was that of the displaced people and the containment camps where tens of thousands of ISIS supporters and relatives of the fighters are located. In Al Hawl camp in northern Syria alone, there are 60,000 refugees, many foreigners, and it is believed that from there, terrorist offensives are being organized in the region. “This situation is simply unbearable. It cannot persist indefinitely ”, Blinken said, looking at his European colleagues. France and Great Britain, two of America’s closest allies, they resist calls to repatriate their citizens who once joined ISIS. They believe that they have no way to de-radicalize them and that in prisons they will indoctrinate other prisoners. They also fear that the courts will demand the release of the ex-combatants, placing a heavy burden on the intelligence services.

“There can be no areas liberated for terrorists neither in refugee camps, neither in Africa, nor elsewhere”, concluded Italian Minister Luigi Di Maio. An impeccable statement of principles but which, for the experts at the top of Rome to have a real effect, requires more than words. Combating Islamic extremism will take considerable time, resources and military capabilities in a highly volatile region.

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