Lots of excess verbiage and less interesting questions and answers snipped. [AllAfrica] Digital press briefing on U.S. efforts to combat terrorism in Africa, featuring John T. Godfrey, Acting Coordinator for Counterterrorism and Acting Special Envoy for the Global Coalition to Defeat ISIS, and Michael C. Gonzales, Deputy Assistant Secretary, Bureau of African Affairs. The speakers addressed recent developments in U.S. counterterrorism efforts in Africa, including in the Great Lakes region and Mozambique.
Mr. Godfrey: Great. So as you all probably saw yesterday, Secretary of State Blinken designated ISIS-Democratic Republic of the Congo and ISIS-Mozambique as Foreign Terrorist Organizations and Specially Designated Global Terrorists, or SDGTs for short. He also designated Seka Musa Baluku, the leader of ISIS-DRC, and Abu Yasir Hassan, the leader of ISIS-Mozambique, as SDGTs.
Before we dig into the substance and consequences of those designations, I'd first like to take a moment to discuss the larger context at play here, which is the expanded presence of ISIS in Africa. |