UNOCT: Terror threat posed by ISIL ‘remains volatile and complex’


The threat posed by the terrorist group ISIL remains dynamic and diverse, with Africa currently experiencing the highest level of activity worldwide.

While multiple ISIL leaders have perished in the past few years, “the group has managed to retain its operational capacity”, Vladimir Voronkov, head of the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) told the Security Council Wednesday. ISIL makes use of regional and domestic affiliates and continues to receive substantial global donations, operating through regional hubs and cross-border financial networks. The threat the extremist group poses is notably exacerbated in Africa’s Sahel region, where ISIL affiliates such as Islamic State West Africa Province have emerged as prolific producers of terrorist propaganda, which continues to attract foreign recruits.

Read more…
Source: UN Office of Counter-Terrorism


Sign up for the Counter-IED Report Newsletters
The latest news and insights delivered right to your inbox


Related:

  • Terrorism ‘spreading and destabilizing’ entire regions, Guterres warns States, at key Kenya conference

    July 9, 2019

    Speaking in Nairobi at the opening of a conference on counter-terrorism, Mr. Guterres recalled how attackers had laid siege to a hotel complex in the capital in January, killing 21 people. Africans on ‘front line’ against terror The deteriorating situation in the Sahel and “increasing risks” in West Africa are also deeply concerning, the UN chief continued, amid ...

  • Northern Ireland: Man and woman face terrorism charges

    July 8, 2019

    Two people have been charged with terrorism offences after police seized munitions and ammunition in County Antrim. A man, 33, and a woman, 31, were arrested after a search at a property on Cladytown Road in Glarryford, near Ballymena on Friday night. They are charged with offences including possessing explosive substances and ammunition. They are due to appear ...

  • Somalia: Death Toll From Mogadishu Car Bombing Rises to At Least Three

    July 8, 2019

    At least three people including a policeman were killed and five others injured after a vehicle loaded with explosives went off at a security checkpoint in Mogadishu on Monday. A security officer who confirmed the incident said the two al-Shabab militants and the policeman were killed during a confrontation when a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device attempted ...

  • 12 killed, at least 96 wounded including dozens of school children in Ghazni car bombing

    July 7, 2019

    A car bomb explosion in south-eastern Ghazni province claimed the lives of at least 12 people and wounded at least 96 others. The local officials confirmed that a suicide bomber detonated a car bomb close to an intelligence compound in 1st district of Ghazni city at 8:30am local time. The officials further added that the explosion claimed ...

  • Taliban attack in Kabul kills 16, wounds dozens of children

    July 1, 2019

    The Taliban detonated a powerful car bomb in an area of Afghanistan‘s capital housing military and government buildings, killing at least 16 people, the country’s interior ministry told Al Jazeera. The bomb went off during the morning rush hour in Kabul when the streets were filled with people, injuring 105 people, including 51 children and five women, government authorities ...

  • Philippines: 5 killed, 9 wounded in Sulu blast

    June 28, 2019

    Five people, including three soldiers, were killed while nine others were wounded in an explosion in the vicinity of a military camp in Indanan, Sulu, the military said Friday. Army spokesperson Lt. Col. Ramon Zagala said three soldiers and two civilians were killed from the blast that occurred at a checkpoint set up by the 1st ...

  • Tunisia explosion: Capital rocked after two suicide attacks – 1 police officer dead

    June 27, 2019

    Tunisia has been rocked after two suicide bombers blew themselves up in separate attacks in the Tunisian capital, killing one police officer and wounding several others, the Tunisian Interior Ministry has confirmed. The first targeted a police patrol in Charles de Gaulle Street in central Tunis at around 11am. One police officer was killed and at ...

  • Twin blasts on Kirkuk buses kill 1, injure 17

    June 27, 2019

    One woman was killed and 17 other passengers injured when twin blasts struck two public buses in downtown Kirkuk on Thursday, just a month after a string of explosions rocked the disputed city. The first improvised explosive device (IED) detonated on board a bus in Companies’ Street, killing one woman and injuring four other passengers. The second ...

  • The growing threat of IEDs in western Niger

    June 19, 2019

    Over the past seven months, armed groups across Western Niger have executed a series of IED attacks – a first in the area’s ongoing insurgency. The increasing use of IEDs by the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) in the Tillabery and Tahoua regions of Niger indicates that the region’s insurgency is escalating and globalizing, ...

  • 10 injured as militants trigger IED blast again in Pulwama

    June 18, 2019

    Army personnel travelling in mine-proof vehicle targeted Eight Army personnel and two civilians were injured when militants triggered an improvised explosive device (IED) fitted in a vehicle near an Army patrol in the militancy-hit Pulwama district of south Kashmir on Monday, officials said. They said the multi-vehicle patrol of the 44 Rashtriya Rifles was moving on the ...

  • Explosive Devices: The evolution of the threat

    June 17, 2019

    Improvised Explosives Devices (IED) have long been, and remain, the weapon of choice for terrorists and insurgents due to the ease of their manufacture, employment, and destructive potential, as shown by the attacks that have occurred around the world in the past few months. Driving the increased threat is the amount of terrorist propaganda material available ...

  • Four Cameroon police killed by suspected separatist bomb – government

    June 16, 2019

    Cameroon’s government said on Sunday that separatists in its restive English-speaking region had detonated an improvised explosive device that killed four police and wounded six. “The government condemns in the strongest terms this criminal act, perpetrated by armed bandits and terrorists with no faith or law,” the statement said. It also said the attack occurred along ...

  • UN chief condemns terrorist attacks in Kenya and Somalia

    June 16, 2019

    The UN Secretary-General, António Guterres, condemned on Sunday the attack that took place on Saturday in Wajir County, Kenya, in which at least eight police officers were killed when their car struck an improvised explosive device (IED), and the car bomb attack in Mogadishu, Somalia, in which at least eight people were killed. Dozens were injured ...

  • Islamists claim double attack in Somali capital Mogadishu

    June 15, 2019

    A pair of explosions rocked Somalia’s capital and left eight people dead, the director of an ambulance service said Saturday, as the al-Qaida-linked extremist group al-Shabab claimed responsibility. Another 16 people were wounded, some of them seriously, Dr. Abdiqadir Aden with the Aamin ambulance service told The Associated Press. He said a car bomb detonated near ...

  • Twelve police officers dead, one injured after IED attack in Wajir, Kenya

    June 15, 2019

    Twelve police officers were killed in Wajir late Friday, when Al Shabaab terrorists planted an Improvised Explosive Devise (IED) on the road. A senior police officer in the region said the attack occurred on Saturday morning at Konton centre, and were pursuing attackers who raided the village late Friday and drove away with three police reservists. “They ...