BY SIOBHÁN O'GRADY\FP
Between Boko Haram and al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, North and
West Africa have in recent years fallen victim to an epidemic of
Islamist extremism that threatens the stability of the entire region.
But as Mali, Cameroon, Nigeria, and other turbulent nations came
under attacks by militants in those groups, nearby Ghana took comfort in
its relative freedom from the violence and chaos sparked by the other
Islamist insurgencies.
That all changed this week, when Ghanaian National Security
Coordinator Yaw Donkor confirmed that at least two Ghanaian citizens
have left the country to join the Islamic State. One of them, Mohammad
Nazir Nortei Alema, a 25-year-old university student, contacted his
family via WhatsApp on Aug. 16 to tell them he had joined the Islamist
extremists. Donkor did not reveal the identity of the second individual
who allegedly joined the group, but the cases are the first ever
reported in Ghana.
According to Donkor, who spoke to state media, Alema likely traveled
through neighboring Burkina Faso or nearby Nigeria before reaching a
training camp in Niger and then moving forward to Turkey or Syria.
Donkor also confirmed that Alema was radicalized in an online forum,
raising fears that the Islamic State is using social media to persuade
other Ghanaian university students to join the group in Iraq or Syria —
or potentially, return home to take up arms in Ghana itself.
Alema’s family has been vocal about his departure, speaking to
multiple international news outlets about his choice to join the
extremists, and reiterating that he was radicalized online, not in a
mosque in Ghana. Alema, who reportedly finished a government internship
in July, displayed no signs of outwardly supporting radical Islam, his
family members have said. His brother told Reuters that two weeks after
telling his family he was traveling from Accra to a mining town in the
country’s west, they received WhatsApp messages revealing he left the
country to join the group and abandon what he called “the corrupt
system.”
“He said he loves us so much and that we should forgive him for not
making his intentions known to us from the beginning,” his brother told
the news agency.
According to a spring report from the United Nations, more than
25,000 foreign fighters — many of whom were similarly radicalized online
— have traveled to Iraq and Syria to join the Islamic State. Both male
militants and women who joined the group to marry the extremists are
among the thousands of radical supporters from an estimated 100
countries now represented in the group’s self-declared caliphate, which
stretches between Syria and Iraq. Speaking to the BBC Tuesday, Alema’s
father said hearing his son joined the group was like hearing “someone
in the family has died.”
The presence of sophisticated Islamic State training camps in Niger
where Donkor claims Alema was trained is particularly frightening
because Niger, which borders Libya, is not only under repeated attack by
Boko Haram extremists but is also a passover stop for many migrants
attempting to reach Europe through North Africa.
For such camps to exist in Niger poses an added threat as the country
is already facing considerable social and political turbulence. Boko
Haram, which is based in Nigeria but launches attacks in Niger,
Cameroon, and Chad, declared allegiance to the Islamic State in March,
and now refers to itself as the self-declared caliphate’s “West African
Province” although whatever ties may exist between the two groups remain
murky.
Donkor said that Alema’s case has sparked an investigation by
Ghanaian authorities into any possible links between the country’s
universities and the Islamic State. But he also insisted that there only
a “handful” of cases in Ghana, and there is “no reason to fear” large
scale radicalization there
No comments:
Post a Comment