The threat from the Islamic State extremist group is growing by the day in Africa and the continent could be “the future of the caliphate,” an African security expert warned the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday.
Martin Ewi said the Islamic State “has expanded its influence beyond measure” in Africa, with at least 20 countries directly experiencing the extremist group's activity and more than 20 others “being used for logistics and to mobilise funds and other resources.”
“They are now regional hubs, which have become corridors of instability in Africa,” said Ewi, who coordinates a transnational organised crime project at the Institute for Security Studies in South Africa's capital Pretoria and was previously in charge of the African Union Commission's counter-terrorism program.
He said the Lake Chad Basin — which borders Chad, Nigeria, Niger and Cameroon — is the extremist group's biggest area of operation, areas in the Sahel are now “ungovernable” and Somalia remains the IS “hotspot” in the Horn of Africa.
