ISIS re-emerges in Congo with widespread terrorism

ISIS has returned with a number of repeated terrorist operations in the Congo recently, which has raised the fears of the government there. The last attacks claimed by the terrorist organization in the Congo were at the end of December 2021, when a suicide bomber targeted a bar located in the Beni region of the province of Ituri in eastern Congo on December 25, according to a statement in which the organization claimed responsibility for the attack and published it on its Telegram channel, as reported by Reuters and the SITE website, which specializes in following jihadist groups.

Recently, the field movements in the Congo showed that there are widespread movements of ISIS elements, as the Foreign Policy magazine highlighted these movements and indicated in its report that these movements are frightening and very worrying.

In its report, the magazine added that ISIS, since its defeat in Iraq and Syria, has shifted its orientations to Africa, and the eastern region of the Democratic Republic of the Congo has become a stronghold for its terrorist activity, especially as it launches terrorist operations from there on Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda.

Beginning of ISIS’s emergence in the Congo

The emergence of ISIS in the Congo is slightly different from its appearance in any other African country, as ISIS emerged in the Congo through the separation of groups from movements linked to al-Qaeda or the declaration of allegiance by extremist groups to the organization, such as the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF).

ISIS announced its presence by publishing videos about the ADF movement, which is stationed in eastern Congo, and later known as the Islamic State - Central Africa Province (ISCAP), in 2019. That movement also includes the Ansar al-Sunna group in Mozambique, which is active in Cabo Delgado province in the north of the country.

The ADF launched a series of bloody attacks before and after allegiance to ISIS, which made it the most violent in the east of the country, according to US State Department data. The organization killed 849 civilians in 2020, and at the end of last May, the organization killed 39 civilians, including women, in the Kivu region in the east of the country. The movement’s operations caused the displacement of 140,000 citizens.

Following these operations, the US State Department included the ISIS branch in Congo and Mozambique on the list of foreign terrorist organizations on March 10, 2021.

Strong financial support

Abdel Latif Mohamed, a researcher of African affairs at the Institute of African Studies and Research at Cairo University, said that ISIS provides great financial support to terrorist groups in the Congo to carry out the largest number of attacks, and for this reason all terrorist organizations there have offered it loyalty and obedience.

Mohamed explained to the Reference that ISIS wants the Congo to be its main stronghold in Africa because of its distinguished location, through which it can launch attacks on Mozambique, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and other countries, and it can coordinate between all extremist groups in that region through the Congo.

He added that the ADF, which declared its allegiance to ISIS, has great political and military weight in the African continent and has strong relations with some terrorist groups, including Boko Haram and Al-Shabaab, so it makes it easier for ISIS to communicate with those groups, serving as a link between them.