SNAPSHOTS

Congo: What's Behind the Islamic State's Claim of an Attack in Africa?

Apr 19, 2019 | 20:31 GMT

(Stratfor)

Ejected from its cradle in Mesopotamia, the Islamic State is expanding rapidly elsewhere in the world, including Central Africa -- or so it says. On April 18, the Islamic State's central media channel, Amaq, published a claim for an attack that occurred in North Kivu in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. According to Amaq, militants belonging to the Islamic State's "Central Africa Province" attacked Congolese soldiers, killing three and injuring five, in the remote locality of Kamango. This is the first time that Amaq has claimed an attack in the country, even though fighters claiming allegiance to the Islamic State have been conducting attacks in the area for years now. More active in the area, however, are the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), a jihadist group with origins in Uganda that has attempted to rebrand itself in part by adopting the slogans and flags of an Islamic State-like group....

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