KAMPALA, Uganda – The Islamic State was collapsing in Iraq and Syria, but a jihadist appeared on YouTube from the jungles of eastern Congo to declare that the Caliphate is regrouping in Central Africa.
“I call on all Muslims in the world to join us in the Congo,” said the man, who identified himself as an Arab and had a large machine gun and a bandage, flanked by a small group of birds of prey under a dense forest roof. “I swear by God that this is the home of the Islamic State.”
The video was largely dismissed by analysts as an attempt by the crumbling terrorist group to get hits. But three years after it was broadcast, the Islamic State’s little-known Central African province expanded so rapidly that the US State Department imposed sanctions on the group and its leadership for the first time last month.
At the end of March, hundreds of fighters from the group occupied an important port city in Mozambique after a days-long siege in which they killed dozens of people and caused thousands to run through forests and mangrove swamps for their lives. The attack forced French oil company Total SE to evacuate all its staff from the $ 16 billion project, as well as 2,000 refugees.
The SITE intelligence detection, which monitors extremist groups worldwide, is known this year as Iscap, the swelling group of militants from the Congo and Mozambique who once fought for central government autonomy. Led by a veteran Ugandan jihadist, Musa Baluku, the Congolese civilian force formerly known as the Allied Democratic Forces, or ADF, killed more than 849 civilians in 2020, the foreign ministry said.