ISIS is considered a significant threat to peace, taking advantage of ongoing conflicts and growing instability in Africa to carry out operations on the continent.
While ISIS has benefitted from the current instability in Syria following the fall of Bashar al-Assad’s regime, two UN officials warned on Monday about the group’s increased ability to plan destabilising operations across Africa.
The instability caused by the overthrow of Assad on December 8 has heightened the risk of sophisticated weapon stockpiles falling into ISIS hands, warned Vladimir Voronkov, head of the UN Counter-Terrorism Office (UNOCT), which oversees the coordination of UN counter-terrorism efforts.
While speaking at a UN security council meeting on ISIS, Voronkov was quoted in a statement received by APA on Tuesday as pointing out that this instability also affects the camps and detention centers in northeast Syria, where more than 42,000 people, some of whom may have links to the group, are still detained.
Noting a significant slowdown in the repatriation of foreign nationals stranded in these camps and facilities, the UNOCT chief urged member states to intensify efforts to facilitate their return.
Voronkov also pointed out that ISIS maintains a stronghold in the Badia, the Syrian desert stretching from Homs to the Euphrates Valley, from which the group plans its destabilising activities, particularly beyond the Middle East.
A growing threat in Africa
ISIS has been capitalising on ongoing conflicts and increasing instability in Africa to conduct operations across the continent, expressed Natalia Gherman, head of the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee (CTC), which ensures the implementation of the Security Council’s counter-terrorism resolutions.
For Gherman, ISIS, through its affiliated terrorist groups, now represents “the greatest threat to peace” on the African continent.
As an example, the CTC chief mentioned ISIS in West Africa, which exploits the precarious conditions in the region to recruit children, carry out abductions, and attack schools and hospitals.
In the Sahel and Lake Chad Basin, she added, ISIS’s decentralised operations continue to proliferate, while regional cooperation declines.
In 2024, Gherman specified that the CTC carried out numerous visits, including to Ivory Coast, Ghana, Malawi, Mauritania, and Tanzania, to assess the implementation of the security council’s counter-terrorism resolutions.
According to Gherman, these visits and analyses by the CTC have revealed “persistent gaps” in border security and national efforts to combat terrorism financing.
They also highlighted the need for greater regional cooperation to counter the transnational nature of ISIS’s activities.
“Judicial prosecution, rehabilitation, and reintegration programs must also remain a cornerstone of these efforts,” she added.
New guiding principles
The CTC chief further mentioned ongoing initiatives to strengthen rehabilitation in prisons and emphasise socio-economic reintegration services within communities, particularly for vulnerable adolescents.
She reminded that last month, the CTC adopted non-binding guiding principles on the prevention of the use of new financial technologies for terrorist purposes, also known as the “Algeria Guiding Principles.”
“These guiding principles underscore the importance of a comprehensive, risk-based approach and provide practical guidance to member states,” Gherman emphasised.
TE/sf/lb/as/APA