Recent Appearances...

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Hello !
Recent Appearances...

Abu Yasir al-Jazairi

al-Qaeda

India-Pakistan

20030115

Africa Subsaharan

Mozambique: Army kills two senior rebel leaders in Cabo Delgado

2023-08-25

[AFRICANEWS] Mozambique's army has killed two senior rebel leaders in the northern province of Cabo Delgado, which is in the grip of an armed jihadist insurgency, it announced on Wednesday.

"Terrorist Abu Kital, who held the position of deputy operations commander for the Al Sunna Wall Jamat terrorist group,

...the old name of Islamic State Central Africa Province-Mozambique (ISCAP), whence they moved in 2015 from the Congo, following the probable death of their original emir Abu Yasir Hassan of Tanzania (aka Yaseer Hassan and Abu Qasim), who moved between Mocimboa da Praia and the Congo. Familiarly known as Al Shabaab-Mozambique because they got themselves trained in jihading by the Al Qaeda-linked Somali Sahboobs, they fund themselves through heroin, contraband, ivory, raiding, and selling the local girls into slavery...

was rubbed out," the Mozambique Defense Forces (FADM) announced in a statement.

Another jihadist, Ali Mahando, who "held important responsibilities within the terrorist group", was also killed, they added.

Rich in natural gas, the Moslem-majority province of Cabo Delgado has been gripped for five years by an insurgency led by fighters linked to the Islamic State

Link

Africa Subsaharan

EU adds Mozambique’s terror group Cabo Delgado to its sanction list

2023-04-27

[Garowe] The European Union

...the successor to the Holy Roman Empire, only without the Hapsburgs and the nifty uniforms and the dancing...
Council today decided to add two individuals and one group affiliated with ISIS and operating mainly in the Cabo Delgado region in Mozambique to the list of those subject to restrictive measures against ISIS (Da'esh) and al-Qaeda and persons, groups, undertakings, and entities associated with them.

These measures target ISIS-Mozambique

...more formally Islamic State Mozambique Province and even more fully since 2018 as Islamic State Central Africa Province-Mozambique (ISCAP), whence they moved in 2015 from the Congo, where they had called themselves Ansar al-Sunna (supporters of the tradition), more formally as Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jamah (ASWJ, adepts of the prophetic tradition). Originally led by Abu Yasir Hassan of Tanzania (also known as Yaseer Hassan and Abu Qasim), who moved between Mocimboa da Praia and the Congo until his death possibly in 2015. Al Shabaab-Mozambique funds itself through heroin, contraband, ivory, raiding, and selling the local girls into slavery...

as well as Abu Yasir Hassan

...does that mean he’s not actually seven years a-mouldering in the grave?

and Bonomade Machude Omar,

ISIS-Mozambique/Al Shabaab-ISIS’s senior military commander, which is indeed a kind of key leader, especially if one is sure he’s not already dead...

who hold key leadership roles in the group. The sanctioned group and individuals are responsible for terrorist attacks and serious human rights
...which are usually entirely different from personal liberty...
abuses.

Their activities contribute to the expansion of the terrorist threat in Mozambique and pose a serious threat to the EU and to regional and international stability.

With these new listings, a total of 15 persons are now subject to a travel ban and an asset freeze, and five groups to an asset freeze. In addition, EU persons and operators are forbidden from making funds or economic resources available to the listed persons and groups.

Today's decision reconfirms the EU's resolve in countering the continued terrorist threat posed by al-Qaeda, ISIS/Da'esh, and their regional affiliates.

The EU remains committed to taking decisive action against those who continue to threaten international peace and security by planning, financing, and committing terrorist attacks, and by spreading their deadly terrorist propaganda around the world.

Alongside the targeted sanctions, the EU deploys a wide variety of initiatives as part of an integrated approach — encompassing humanitarian, development, peacebuilding, and security actions — to address the armed violence in Cabo Delgado. Under this approach, the EU has been supporting displaced people fleeing violence and providing food and basic goods to local populations suffering as a result of the grave humanitarian situation.

The EU has also put in place multidimensional security support consisting of the deployment of an EU military training mission (EUTM Mozambique) and the delivery of non-lethal equipment through the European Peace Facility, and an EU counter-terrorism expert assisting in the police and law-enforcement sector in Mozambique. In addition, the EU supports regional and bilateral security efforts in Cabo Delgado.

Link

Africa Subsaharan

Mozambique jihadi violence spreads despite military effort

2022-10-16

NANJUA, Mozambique (AP) — Fleeing beheadings, shootings, rapes and kidnappings, nearly 1 million people are displaced by the Islamic extremist insurgency in northern Mozambique.

The 5-year wave of jihadi violence in Cabo Delgado province has killed more than 4,000 people and scuppered international investments worth billions of dollars.

In a sprawl of dilapidated tents and thatched huts around Nanjua, a small town in the southern part of Cabo Delgado province, several hundred families are seeking safety from the violence. They say their conditions are bleak and food assistance is meager but they’re afraid to return home because of continuing violence by the rebels who are now going by the name Islamic State Mozambique Province.

...since 2018 known formally as Islamic State Central Africa Province-Mozambique (ISCAP), whence they moved in 2015 from the Congo, where they had called themselves Ansar al-Sunna (supporters of the tradition), more formally as Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jamah (ASWJ, adepts of the prophetic tradition). Originally led by Abu Yasir Hassan of Tanzania (also known as Yaseer Hassan and Abu Qasim), who moved between Mocimboa da Praia and the Congo until his death possibly in 2015. Al Shabaab-Mozambique funds itself through heroin, contraband, ivory, raiding, and selling the local girls into slavery...

More than 1.000 miles south, however, government officials in the capital Maputo are saying the insurgency is under control and are encouraging the displaced to return to their homes and energy companies to resume their projects.

"The terrorists are on the run permanently," Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi assured investors at the Mozambique Energy and Gas Summit in Maputo in September. He urged the gathering of international energy executives to resume work on their stalled liquefied natural gas projects.

Link

Africa Subsaharan

ISIS fanatics are mauled to death and eaten by LIONS while hiding out during battle over gas reserves in Mozambique

2022-10-01

Are the lions OK?

ISIS insurgents in Mozambique

were mauled and eaten by lions after a battle
Inshallah. Clearly their actions displeased their god.

They died in military operation in Cabo Delgado after killing villagers in the area

Local police said they died from guns, lions, crocodiles, snakes and buffaloes
...suggesting Allah is not merely displeased, but seriously annoyed...
Mozambican forces said that they captured four jihadists who were involved in recruiting and radicalising people and said 16 more died

Violence in Cabo Delgado is over multi-billion dollar natural gas reserves, third largest on the continent
... Cabo Delgado is known for coal and ruby mines, natural gas, and jihad...

Deaths in Cabo Delgado have already topped 4,000 and around 950,000 people have been displaced from their homes. The province which borders Tanzania is the only area of Mozambique with a Muslim majority and is a heavily neglected area.

Link

Europe

Suspended sentence for German who joined ISIS aged 15

2022-05-19

[Rudaw] A German woman who joined the Islamic State

...also known as Nihad Abu Yasir, an early arrival who worked his way up to the Islamic State group's Amniyat intelligence service...

was captured in 2019 by the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces, the Kurdish administration's de-facto army, two of his wives told AFP at the time.

...specifically both of his German wives: Ms Messing and Sabina, 37.

In December 2020, Messing was repatriated in one of four operations bringing a total of 54 people, most of them children, back to Germany.

Messing was arrested upon her arrival at Frankfurt airport but later released.

She now lives close to where she grew up in Germany with her two children, according to local media.

A German court in November issued the first ruling worldwide to recognise crimes against the Yazidi community as genocide, in a verdict hailed by activists as a "historic" win for the minority.

The Yazidis, a Kurdish-speaking group hailing from northern Iraq, have for years been persecuted by ISIS ~~bandidos~~ ~~bandidos~~ Death Eaters who have killed hundreds of men, raped women and forcibly recruited children as fighters.

Link

Africa Subsaharan

Terror threat morphs in Mozambique

2022-02-27

[DW] The insurgency in Mozambique's Cabo Delgado province is spreading to neighboring regions, according to a new study. This comes despite the intervention of SADC and Rwandan troops.

Mozambique's al-Shabaab militia, whose name comes from the Arabic for youth and which has no relation to Somalia's al-Shabaab terrorist group,

... actually, they hired members of Somalia’s Al Qaeda-linked Al Shabaab to train them in jihadi skills, explaining the local nickname. Since 2018 they’ve been known formally as Islamic State Central Africa Province-Mozambique (ISCAP), whence they moved in 2015 from the Congo, where they had called themselves Ansar al-Sunna (supporters of the tradition), more formally as Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jamah (ASWJ, adepts of the prophetic tradition). Originally led by Abu Yasir Hassan of Tanzania (also known as Yaseer Hassan and Abu Qasim), who moved between Mocimboa da Praia and jihadis in the Congo until 2015, when he may or may not have died. Al Shabaab-Mozambique funds itself through heroin, contraband, ivory, raiding, and selling the local girls into slavery...

has been carrying out brutal attacks in the nation's most northern province, Cabo Delgado,

.. known for coal and ruby mines, natural gas, and jihad...

since 2017.

Link

Europe

German woman goes on trial in Germany for joining ISIS

2022-01-26

German woman goes on trial in #Germany for joining #ISIS in #Syria in 2015. https://t.co/NHQ4E1aNuf
— NORTH PRESS AGENCY - ENGLISH (@NPA_English) January 25, 2022

A woman who fled Germany as a teenager to join ISIS in Syria goes on trial on Tuesday accused of aiding crimes against humanity. Leonora Messing was just 15 when she fled her home in Sangerhausen, Germany, and became a high-profile jihadi bride.

Messing reached Raqqa, then the so-called at the time ’capital’ of ISIS in Syria in 2015, before wedding fellow German national and krazed killer Martin Lemke, also known as Nihad Abu Yasir.

She was only his third wife, and his second German wife at that.

Her father, Maik Messing, 49, revealed his shock at his radicalised daughter’s decision to join a deadly terror group when he penned the book Leonora in 2019.

He revealed that just days after she vanished he received a text message saying Leonora ’chose Allah and Islam’ and had ’arrived in the caliphate’.

Messing, now aged 21, is in the dock in the eastern German city of Halle on suspicion that she and her ISIS husband

...himself accused of being an early arrival who worked his way up to the Islamic State group's Amniyat intelligence service, he brought both German wives with him when he surrendered to the SDF. The other wife is Sabina, age 37 ...

enslaved a Yezidi woman in Syria in 2015.

The behind-closed-doors trial, scheduled to last until at least mid-May, will also try Messing on charges of membership of a terrorist organization and weapons law violations.

Her high-profile case has dominated conversations across her homeland, with Germans questioning how a teenage girl from a tiny town could fall into the hands of the Islamist cause.

Link

Africa Subsaharan

ISIS-linked extremists decapitate Christian pastor before handing his severed head to his wife to show authorities in Mozambique

2021-12-18

[Daily Mail, where America gets its news]

Killing reportedly took place in the country's gas-rich province Cabo Delgado
... known for coal and ruby mines, natural gas, and jihad...
Police said the widow arrived to the local police headquarters last Wednesday

Cabo Delgado province has been rocked by attacks by ISIS-linked militants since 2017,

...since 2018 known formally as Islamic State West Africa Province-Mozambique (ISCAP), informally as Al Shabaab (the youths). They appeared in Mozambique in 2015, calling themselves Ansar al-Sunna (supporters of the tradition), more formally as Ahlu Sunnah Wa-Jamah (ASWJ, adepts of the prophetic tradition). Led by Abu Yasir Hassan (also known as Yaseer Hassan and Abu Qasim), the 40-ish Tanzanian religious leader moved between Mocimboa da Praia and jihadis in the Congo until 2015, when Tanzania authorities think he he died, though the Americans strongly disagree. They hired members of Somali Al Shabaab (linked to Al Qaeda) to train them in jihadi skills, explaining the local nickname. Al Shabaab-Mozambique funds itself through heroin, contraband, ivory, raiding, and selling the local girls into slavery...

killing at least 3,340 people and displacing more than 800,000

Link

Terror Networks

Niger: State Department Terrorist Designation of Ousmane Illiassou Djibo

2021-06-30

[AllAfrica] Today, the United States is designating Ousmane Illiassou Djibo - also known as Petit Chapori - as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT) under section 1(a)(ii)(B) of Executive Order (E.O.) 13224.

As a result of this designation, U.S. persons are generally prohibited from engaging in any transactions with Djibo. His property and interests in property subject to U.S. jurisdiction are blocked.

Ousmane Illiassou Djibo, a native Nigerien, is an Islamic State

Link

Africa Subsaharan

Mozambique: Terrorists Destroy Over 100 Cabo Delgado Schools

2021-04-18

[AllAfrica] Terrorist raids have destroyed 104 schools in the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado, almost 12 per cent of the 900 schools in the province, according to the Provincial Directorate of Education.

The directorate said that 168,639 pupils have been displaced by the terrorists, known locally as "Al-Shabaab
...... al-Qaeda's tentacle in East Africa...
", and who boast affiliation to the self-styled "Islamic State

...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
". Also among those displaced from their homes are 1,623 teachers from various levels of education, at least seven of whom are known to have bit the dust during the attacks.

Education Directorate representative Manuel Bacar, speaking on Thursday during a webinar on "Implications of the Armed Attacks for Education in Cabo Delgado", said that Mocimboa da Praia, Palma, Quissanga and Muidumbe are the districts most affected by attacks against schools.

Bacar added that a further 194 schools in Cabo Delgado have not been able to start the 2021 school year, because of the lack of security in those parts of the province.

Nonetheless he expressed confidence in the efforts made by the defence and security forces in the fight against terrorism, which had made it possible to rebuild 149 temporary classrooms, and to distribute learning kits to the displaced pupils.

"We are pleased because we are seeing an attempt to return to normality", said Bacar. "Although challenges remain, education in Cabo Delgado is functioning. The government is doing all it can, together with its partners, to make more classrooms available".

The safest areas, he added, are the scenic provincial capital, Pemba, and Chiure and Montepuez districts. Hence most of the displaced pupils are in those areas, where they are able to attend classes free of any kind of threat.

The province's education plans for this year, he added, include building at least 2,000 new classrooms, and hiring 591 new teachers.

Meanwhile,
...back at the pie fight, Bella grabbed the cocoanut cream...
frightened families are continuing to flee from Palma district and head for Pemba. Another ship full of these internally displaced people arrived in Pemba on Wednesday night. According to the independent television station STV, the authorities refused, quite illegally, to allow journalists to photograph the arrival of the displaced, and did not even say how many people were on board the ship.

Some of the displaced told STV that hundreds of people remain in Quitunda, about 15 kilometres from Palma town, hopeful that another ship will arrive and take them to Pemba.

A 15 year old girl called Faiza Kibuana told news hounds "A lot of people want to leave Palma and they are concentrated in Quitunda. When a boat arrives people fight to get a place on board".

She said there are now serious food shortages in Quitunda "and what's worse, the hospital isn't open and people are dying of disease".

Link

Africa North

Mozambique: Defence Ministry Confirms Attack Against Palma

2021-03-26

[AllAfrica] The Mozambican Defence Ministry on Thursday morning confirmed that the town of Palma, in the northern province of Cabo Delgado came under terrorist attack on Wednesday.

The brief Ministry statement said the gunnies attacked the town from three directions, and obliged residents to seek safety by fleeing into the nearby bush.

The defence and security forces, said the Ministry, "are pursuing the enemy and are working tirelessly to re-establish security and order as quickly as possible". It urged the civilian population "to remain vigilant and calm, while seeking safe spaces".

Members of the public, it continued, "should continue collaborating with the authorities by denouncing the gunnies and gunnies, so that they may be neutralised".

The Ministry added that all mobile phone communications with Palma town and district have been cut. The statement admitted that so far the government does not have information on the number of casualties or the scale of the damage.

Before communications were cut, the information reaching Maputo was that the attacks had begun at about 16.00, and that the jihadists targeted banks, shops, at least one hotel and the barracks of the Rapid Intervention Unit (UIR - the Mozambican equivalent of the riot police).

According to the independent newssheet "Carta de Mocambique", the shooting ended in the early hours of Thursday, by which time the defence forces had secured control of the town.

There are no reports of any attacks against the site on the Afungi Peninsula where a consortium headed by the French oil and gas company Total is building natural gas liquefaction plants. But Palma town is well within the Afungi security perimeter, which the Mozambican forces have pledged to defend.

It can hardly be a coincidence that the attacks came within hours of Total announcing that it is about to resume work at Afungi. Total had interrupted construction work and evacuated much of its work force after a terrorist attack on 1 January in the resettlement town of Quitunda (a new town built to house people resettled from the areas of the Afungi Peninsula where the two planned gas liquefaction plants will be built).

Since then the government and Total have worked to draw up a plan of action to strengthen security around the site, and the government has declared the area as a special security zone.

Link

Africa North

More about Al Shabaab (Mozambique)’s Abu Yasir Hassan

2021-03-20

[AllAfrica] The US on 10 March designated Islamic State

...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that they were al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're really very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear western pols talk they're not really Moslems....
of Iraq and Syria - Mozambique (ISIS-Mozambique) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) and the man it says is head of ISIS-Mozambique, Tanzanian Abu Yasir Hassan, as Specially Designated Global Terrorist (SDGT).

At the 11 March presser, John Godfrey was asked to provide evidence of ISIS links to the insurgency and that Abu Yasir Hassan is head, but he declined. He would only say that they had secret evidence. "I would say that the evidence of ties between the ISIS branch or network in Mozambique and the so-called ISIS-Core in Iraq and Syria is quite incontrovertible" which is "why the threat is particularly concerning for us." He added that "we're quite confident" that Abu Yasir Hassan "really is the leader of ISIS."

A subsequent US statement said "Abu Yasir Hassan, also known as Yaseer Hassan and Abu Qasim, was born in Pwani Region, Tanzania, between 1981 and 1983. The United States Government has assessed with a high degree of confidence that Hassan is the leader of ISIS-Mozambique." It is believed that Abu Yasir Hassan was one of the most influential leaders of al-Shabaab
...... an Islamic infestation centering on Somalia attempting to metastasize into Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, and similar places, all ofwhich have enough problems without them...
(as it is called locally) in Cabo Delgado, but before the group turned into armed violence.

He is one of the Tanzanian religious leaders who went to Cabo Delgado many years ago. He lived in Mocimboa da Praia until 2014/2015 and had links with radical groups in Congo. It is believed that he lived in Congo as well. But, despite US claims, it is unclear if he is a current leader of the group. Indeed, Inspector General of Police (IGP) in Tanzania, Simon Sirro, said on 12 March that their records showed Abu Yasir Hassan is dead. (The Citizen, Tanzania, 13 Mar) Godfrey made other statements that raise questions about the recentness of his evidence, in particularly stressing "a nexus between terrorism finance and narcotics trafficking in Mozambique that's particularly problematic." But all indications are that this is a myth - the insurgency has closed roads and beaches making the landing and movement of heroin and crystal meth impractical. So drug shipments have moved south to Nampula province, particularly Angoche, and no drugs are moving through Death Eater zones.

Analysts speaking to Zitamar (11 Mar) said Hassan "is understood to be one of a number of leaders of the Mozambican insurgency, and perhaps the leader of the Supreme Council of IS Mozambique - but remarked on the curiosity of the US designating just one person, and a Tanzanian at that, rather than any Mozambicans. That helps Mozambique’s (and in particular President Nyusi’s) narrative of the insurgency coming from outside the country, rather than having local roots. But prisoners that have beat feet from Death Eaters' main base Siri, do refer to the commanders as Tanzanians. Meanwhile,
...back at the abandoned silver mine, there was another explosion...
the Islamist connection is something the regime has always tried to avoid, under pressure from Mozambique’s influential Moslem community."

The US briefing transcript is here.

Link

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