This month’s In Focus links the brutal attack on a school in the small Ugandan town of Mpondwe to the Islamic State Central Africa Province. Amid ongoing Shuja counterterrorist operations by the Ugandan and Congolese Armies, ISCAP escalated its activities in the northeast territories of the DRC in Ituri and North Kivu. The group made an incursion into the Ugandan territory of Mpondwe and massacred 42 people, most of them secondary school students. In recent months, ISCAP’s strategy has proven its effectiveness, as the organization continues conducting successful and deadly attacks, especially against defenseless Christian villages. Evidence also suggests ISCAP’s continued coordination with IS-Mozambique and other cells in Africa contributes to their resilience.
In the Philippines, online discourse and Philippines security forces statements indicate with some certainty that Islamic State – East Asia Province emir Abu Zakariya has been eliminated and an alleged new emir appointed in his place. The fragmented structure of the organization that consists of several armed factions with loose ties to IS central leadership has in the past produced media inaccuracies regarding the leadership change in ISEAP. However, the confirmation by both security forces and ISEAP unofficial media channels may suggest the news is true this time. ISEAP continues to operate as an umbrella organization that attracts various radicalized individuals to join their ranks. The four known groups under ISEAP operate with a certain degree of independence from each other and from IS core. ISEAP is a fragmented and hybrid organ guided mostly by extremist ideology and it conducts small scale raids and IED attacks.
In Yemen, Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula continues its “Arrows of Truth” campaign. The group has intensified its weaponized UAV attacks, and has also carried out several complex IED attacks. Recently published AQAP propaganda included some tentative indications of Ayman al-Zawahiri’s death, which has yet to be officially confirmed by Al-Qaeda Central, or any other AQ source. New information about another senior AQ official, Mustafa al-Bakri, believed to be residing in Iran, may suggest he is also deceased.
This month’s Who’s Who? features a Facebook profile that uses the kunya “Abu Husain Al-Hasyimi.” This Indonesian individual expresses strong support for the Islamic State. His Facebook page is full of official and unofficial IS content translated into local languages spoken in Indonesia. Some of the content looks like original posts by the POI. Al-Hasyimi’s posts also express his will to migrate to Syria and join the ranks of IS. The imprudent nature of his activity on social media enabled us to find and identify his face, and his many Facebook friends, who have similar jihadist characteristics to the POI.
In our Instant Messaging Applications Monitoring, using the Codex IMATM system, we investigated two phone numbers found in a WhatsApp group that shares news and propaganda content about the Islamic State. The first has a Sudanese country code. This number may be particularly interesting amid the ongoing security situation in Sudan. The second phone number has an Algerian country code and shows signs of general jihadi enthusiasm with an inclination toward Al-Qaeda related content.
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