Bloomberg Businessweek - USA (2019-05-27)

 POLITICS Bloomberg Businessweek May 27, 2019

41

Sitting cross-legged with a Kalashnikov riflebyhis
side, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, leader of IslamicState,
used his first video appearance in five yearstoreas-
sure his followers that he was far from defeated.
Recorded in a secret location and releasedat
the end of April, the video showed the jihadileader
calmly reflecting on the loss of Islamic State’slast
swath of Middle Eastern territory in March,largely
to a coalition of U.S. and Kurdish forces.Hespoke
about the Easter Sunday bombings in SriLankathat
killed more than 250 people, which wereclaimedby
the Sunni group, and said Islamic State wouldnow
take its battle across the world.
Shortly before, Islamic State had claimeditsfirst
attack in Congo, where three soldiers wereshotdead
by what the group said was a new CentralAfrican
wilayat, or province. He also praised IslamicState
in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), which operatesinthe
part of the Sahel region that overlaps MaliandNiger.
Africa, he said, would be a land of rebirth.
“The loss of the core, the caliphate, wasa huge
blow to them,” says Thomas Abi-Hanna,a secu-
rity analyst at Stratfor. “They are reallytryingto

○ The terrorist organization,

largely defeated at home,

is developing new cells abroad

Islamic State Is

Rebuilding in Africa

Finding

NewHomes

IslamicStateis building

upitsaffiliatesin Africaafter

lossesin theMiddleEast

Islamic State

affiliate presence

DATA:COMBATINGCENTERATWESTTERRORISMPOINT;

NEWS REPORTS; NATURAL EARTH

Tripoli

Fuqaha

Kamango

Egypt

1,250

fighters

Libya

500 fighters

Mali/Niger

425 fighters

Nigeria

3,500

fighters

Somalia

150 fighters

D.R. Congo

Unknown

① In April, Islamic State

leader al-Baghdadi talked

about exploiting political

upheaval in Algeria and

Sudan to gain a foothold

in both countries

② Al-Baghdadi announced

he’d accepted a

loyalty pledge from a

local Islamist group in

Burkina Faso.

①

Algeria

Numberof

fighters:unknown

①

Sudan

Unknown

Sirte

② TongoTongo

BurkinaFaso

Unknown

play up the gains they’ve made elsewhere, and

Africa’s arguably the place where they’ve made

the most gains.”

The continent is fertile ground. Many African

states are struggling with a mix of dire poverty and

soaring populations. Corruption also fuels discon-

tent, which Islamic State has proved adept at exploit-

ing to recruit fighters and gain support among locals.

The countries where it’s taken root “face severe

resource constraints and have limited military capa-

bility, making it more difficult for them to counter

violent extremist organizations,” said General

Stephen Townsend, the incoming head of U.S.

Africa Command, speaking at a congressional hear-

ing in April. In the video, al-Baghdadi announced

he’d accepted a pledge of loyalty from a group in

Burkina Faso and talked of exploiting recent political

upheaval to gain footholds in Algeria and Sudan.

Islamic State had more than 6,000 fighters

in Africa in the middle of last year, according to

a paper published by the Combating Terrorism

Center at West Point. The biggest cell is Islamic

State West Africa Province (Iswap), which has

“Having

provinces

around the

globe—

whether in

Africa or

elsewhere—

achieves their

broader goal”