In Bid to Boost Its Profile, ISIS Turns to Africaâs Militants
Violence by Islamist extremists in Africa reached a record high last year. Now, the Islamic State is using those attacks to project an image of strength.
Waiting for relatives this month outside the port of Pemba, Mozambique, as evacuees arrived by boat from an area battered by extremists.Credit...Alfredo Zuniga/Agence France-Presse â Getty Images
April 7, 2021Updated 8:08 a.m. ET
JOHANNESBURG â The Islamic Stateâs self-declared caliphate has fallen, its fighters have dispersed and its leader, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, has been killed.
But two years after it suffered stinging defeats in Syria and Iraq, the terrorist group has found a new lifeline in Africa, where analysts say it has forged alliances with local militant groups in symbiotic relationships that have pumped up their profiles, fund-raising and recruitment.