Islamic State - The African Mirror

Apr

2023

Attack kills around 20 in eastern Congo; Islamic State claims responsibility

ISLAMIC State has claimed responsibility in a statement on its Telegram channel for an attack on a village in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo that authorities said killed around 20 people. The attack, which took place on Friday in Musandaba, a village on the outskirts of Beni, is part of a wave of violence against civilians that the army and local authorities blame on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan group based in eastern Congo that has pledged allegiance to Islamic State. "We counted about 20 dead on Friday in the village of Musandaba," said the military administrator…

Mar

2023

By The African Mirror

We killed 35 in the DRC – Islamic State

NEWS

ISLAMIC State claimed responsibility for an attack that targeted the village of Mukondi, around 30 km (20 miles) south of the city of Beni in North Kivu province in the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, the group's Amaq agency reported on Friday. Islamist militants killed at least 35 people in an overnight attack on the village in retaliation for a military crackdown on rebel activity, an army spokesperson said on Thursday. Thomson Reuters Foundation

Feb

2023

By The African Mirror

Shamima Begum, British-born woman who joined IS, loses appeal over citizenship removal

WORLD

SAM TOBIN A British-born woman, who went to Syria as a schoolgirl to join Islamic State, lost her latest appeal against the removal of her British citizenship, but her lawyers vowed to keep fighting and said the case was "nowhere near over". The British government took away Shamima Begum's citizenship on national security grounds in 2019, shortly after she was found in a detention camp in Syria. Her latest appeal against that decision was dismissed on Wednesday by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission – a specialist tribunal which hears appeals against decisions to remove citizenship on national security grounds –…

Jan

2023

By The African Mirror

60 abducted Burkinabe women freed

NEWS

THIAM NDIAGA SIXTY-SIX women and children kidnapped by armed assailants in northern Burkina Faso last week have been freed, national broadcaster Radiodiffusion Télévision du Burkina (RTP) said. The mass kidnapping was unprecedented in Burkina Faso, which is facing a violent Islamist insurgency that spread from neighbouring Mali in 2015. On 12 and 13 January, armed men seized the women and their children while they were scouring the bush for fruit and leaves outside two villages in the district of Arbinda, in the Sahel region's Soum province. Security forces staged a rescue operation and found 27 adult women and 39 babies, children and…

Jan

2023

By The African Mirror

Militants kidnap 50 women in Burkina Faso

NEWS

THIAM NDIAGA ISLAMIST militants kidnapped around 50 women searching for food in Burkina Faso's northern province of Soum, a hotbed of jihadist activity, on January 12 and 13, the government said. The mass kidnapping is a first in the insurgency that spread to Burkina Faso from neighbouring Mali in 2015 despite costly international military efforts to contain it. While Westerners and locals are occasionally captured, women had not previously been abducted in such numbers. Mass kidnappings have been carried out in Nigeria by the separate Boko Haram insurgency there. Armed men seized the women as they were picking wild fruit…

Jan

2023

By The African Mirror

Death toll rises to 14 in Congo church attack claimed by Islamic State

NEWS

THE death toll from a church bombing in the east Democratic Republic of Congo has risen to 14, an army spokesman said. Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attack on a Sunday service at a Protestant church in the eastern city of Kasindi, near the border with Uganda. Local army spokesman Anthony Mwalushayi told Reuters the number of casualties had increased to 14 deaths and 63 wounded, from five and 15, respectively, announced on Sunday. The army blamed the attack on the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan militant group that pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in 2019. The militant group could not…

Jan

2023

By The African Mirror

Suspected Islamists kill at least 5 people in east Congo church bomb attack

NEWS

AT least five people were killed and 15 wounded in a suspected Islamist militant bomb attack during a Sunday service at a Protestant church in the eastern Congolese city of Kasindi, on the border with Uganda, the military said. An army spokesman said the attack during a Sunday service was likely carried out by the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a Ugandan militant group that has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State. "Despite the security measures put in place, the first indications show that it is the ADF which is behind this bomb attack," Anthony Mualushay told Reuters by phone. The…

Nov

2022

By The African Mirror

South Africa provides fertile ground for funders of terrorism. Here’s why

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

THE US embassy in South Africa has twice raised the alarm recently about terrorism in the country. On 26 October it issued a security alert for a possible terror attack in Sandton, the financial centre of Johannesburg. Days later it blacklisted four individuals and eight companies as terrorist financiers for Islamic State (ISIS). This followed media reports, most notably by The Economist, showing that ISIS was using South Africa to add to its war chest. There is a long history of concerns about the country’s deficiencies in dealing with terrorism financing activities within its borders. More than 15 years ago,…

Nov

2022

By The African Mirror

U.S. targets weapons trafficking with sanctions on Islamic State in Somalia

NEWS

DAPHNE PSALEDAKIS THE United States issued sanctions targeting the Islamic State in Somalia, designating members of the group and others it accused of being involved in a "terrorist weapons trafficking network" in Eastern Africa. The U.S. Treasury Department in a statement said several of the people designated in Tuesday's action have sold weapons to or were active al Shabaab members. The al Qaeda-linked Islamist group claimed responsibility for two car bombs that exploded outside the education ministry in Somalia's capital Mogadishu on Saturday, killing at least 120 people in the deadliest blasts since a truck bomb killed more than 500 people at…

Oct

2022

By The African Mirror

US and UK warn of possible attack in Nigeria’s capital

NEWS

THE United States and Britain warned of a possible terrorist attack in Nigeria's federal capital Abuja, especially aimed at government buildings, places of worship and schools, among other targets. Nigeria is fighting an Islamist insurgency mainly in the northeast, but in July the Islamic State claimed responsibility for a raid on a prison in Abuja, which freed around 440 inmates, raising fears that insurgents were venturing from their enclaves. The U.S. Embassy in Nigeria said "there is an elevated risk of terror attacks in Nigeria, specifically Abuja" and added that shopping malls, law enforcement facilities and international organisations were among the…