Isis directing global action from Somalia – Africom

US Marine Corps General Michael Langley, commander of US Africa Command (Africom), has said the Islamic jihadist group Isis has moved its global operation command to Somalia, according to Chimp Reports. Langley testified before the US Senate Armed Services Committee last week to deliver Africom’s 2025 posture statement and highlighted the strategic importance of the African continent to the Pentagon. Providing his assessment of the terrorist threat in Africa to the US committee members, Langley said there was persistent and growing risk to regional and global security from violent extremists, including Isis, which he said was directing global operations from Somalia. ‘Africa remains a strategic defence ally but has also become home to terrorists who take advantage of conditions in the continent to grow and export their ideology,’ said Langley. He added: ‘Isis controls a global network from Somalia and (if) left unchecked, they will have a direct effect on the homeland.’ He explained that US Africom continued to leverage security co-operation as a primary tool to build operational independence among African partners. Isis gained global prominence in 2014, when its militants conquered large territories in north-western Iraq and eastern Syria. A year later, the group lost all its territories in West Asia and resorted to remote areas, including in Africa. On 3 July 2024, the US Treasury Department sanctioned three Isis affiliates in Somalia, DRC and Mozambique. Hamidah Nabagal, a Ugandan based in the DRC, and South Africans Abubakar Swalleh and Zayd Gangat are accused of facilitating finances for Isis operations in Sub-Saharan Africa. Nabagala, according to both Uganda and the US security reports, facilitated the October 2021 Kampala bombings that targeted Parliament and the Central Police Station.

Full ChimpReports article