ISIS warns South Africa not to get involved in the Mozambican conflict.
The Islamic terrorist group has said that it will start a war within South Africa’s borders, should the country get involved in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province.
This is according to reports on ISIS’s latest newsletter, Al-Naba.
An organisation linked to ISIS, Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jamaah, has been waging a violent insurgency in Mozambique’s northernmost province, Cabo Delgado.
The insurgency started in 2017, but violence has risen in recent months. Ahlu Sunnah Wal Jamaah wants to establish an extremist form of Islamic law in Cabo Delgado province, even though their motives have been questioned by some as motivated by greed.
In its newsletter, which is published in Arabic, ISIS reportedly wrote that European and American states are trying to convince South Africa to lead the war in Mozambique.
ISIS further states that South Africa’s military involvement might prompt ISIS soldiers to start fighting within the country’s borders.
On Tuesday, DA MP Kobus Marais called on the Minister of Defence and Military Veterans, Nosiviwe Mapisa-Nqakula, to urgently engage her counterparts in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) regarding the increasing ISIS threat.
Marais said the country cannot afford to ignore this threat from ISIS arguing that South Africa has an obligation to safeguard its stability and that of its neighbours. Marais said, “South Africa cannot afford to ignore this threat from ISIS or take its warning lightly. As a member of both SADC and the African Union (AU), we have an obligation to safeguard the stability of our country and our neighbours. The minister needs to also play open cards with South Africans and be honest about the threat facing our neighbouring nation. Mozambique is a popular holiday destination, and many South Africans have friends or family living and working in Mozambique. With the duel threat of ISIS and Covid-19 plaquing the country, transparency from the minister will go a long way in alleviating the extra worry the situation might cause South Africans.”
Read: SADC Heads of State meet in Zimbabwe to discuss Mozambique security situation
ISIS warns SA