UN chief: ISIS threat to world peace increases

UNITED NATIONS – Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said in a new report that the threat to international peace and security from the extremist group Islamic State is increasing, highlighting an alarming expansion of its affiliates in Africa and its focus on a return to its former self-proclaimed caliphate in Syria and Iraq.

The report to the UN Security Council, which was released on Tuesday, said ISIS and other terrorist groups have profited from disruption, grievances and development setbacks caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, both in the field and online.

While closures in non-conflict areas have suppressed terrorist activity, in conflict areas where pandemic restrictions have less impact, the threat from ISIS, also known by its Arabic acronym Daesh, has already increased. , Guterres said.

As the restrictions related to the pandemic gradually ease, there is a high near-term threat of Daesh-inspired attacks outside conflict zones by isolated actors or small groups who have been radicalized, incited and possibly- be directly remotely online, he said.

The UN chief said this illustrates a broader and evolving risk associated with the accelerated use of digital technologies during the pandemic, and the potential for the use of new and emerging technologies for terrorist purposes.

In assessing the threat from the Islamic State, Guterres said his leader, Amir Muhammad Said Abdal-Rahman al-Mawla, remained reluctant to communicate directly with his supporters, and that the group’s command and control over its global affiliates s ‘were released, although he continues to provide advice. and some financial support.

He said the autonomy of regional affiliates has increased, especially in West Africa and the Sahel, East and Central Africa, Afghanistan and South Asia. This development will be an important factor in the future global impact of Daesh, he said, citing unidentified UN member states.

Member states also believe that the extremist group will continue to prioritize regrouping and seeking a resurgence in Iraq and Syria as the main area of ​​operations, he said.

The 16-page report, prepared by the Security Council’s Counterterrorism Committee and experts monitoring sanctions against ISIS, says the group remains active in large swathes of Syria, where it seeks to rebuild its military capabilities. fight and expand his insurgency.

Guterres said IS was carrying out hit-and-run operations against checkpoints from hiding places on both sides of the Euphrates in the eastern province of Deir el-Zour and continued operations against government forces and in the desert. Syrian.

In Iraq, ISIS remains under constant counterterrorism pressure, but continues to conduct hit-and-run operations aimed at undermining critical infrastructure projects, stoking sectarian divisions and community grievances and generating media coverage, did he declare.

Regarding the finances of extremist groups, the UN chief said estimates of financial reserves available to ISIS in Iraq and Syria were between $ 25 million and $ 50 million, a member state of the Unidentified UN claiming most funds were in Iraq.

The secretary-general said the most striking development in the first half of 2021 has been the expansion of ISIS in Africa, where terrorist groups have claimed the highest number of victims.

He said some of ISIS’s most effective affiliates are expanding their influence and activities from Mali to Burkina Faso and Niger, from Nigeria to Niger, Chad and Cameroon, and from Mozambique to Tanzania.

He underlines that the interplay between terrorism, fragility and conflict has strengthened and underscores the need for an urgent global response to support African countries and regional organizations, Guterres said.

In Afghanistan, he said, the IS affiliate has expanded its presence in several provinces and in and around the capital Kabul, despite the leadership, human and financial losses in 2020. In Kabul, most of his attacks have targeted minorities, civil society actors, government employees and security forces, he said.

In ISIS’s efforts to regroup and rebuild in Afghanistan, Guterres said the group has prioritized recruiting and training new supporters and hopes to attract Taliban operatives and other militants who reject the Islamic State. US-Taliban agreement as well as Iraqi fighters.

Estimates of ISIS’s strength in Afghanistan vary widely, from 500 to 1,500 combatants, with an unidentified UN member state saying its strength could reach 10,000 in the medium term, he said.

Guterres said UN member states had previously warned that Daesh could regain the capacity to orchestrate international attacks if its core or one of its regional affiliates grew strong enough.

This scenario has only become more plausible, warned the UN chief.