ISIS News Today 2015: South Africa Seen as Main Bank of Terror Group's Cash and Fighters
As Russia joins in the fight against the Islamic State forces in Syria, building tension between the Russian government and the United States, a new report suggests that South Africa is deemed to be the terror group's key source of money and fighters.
According to Fox News, intelligence officials said the cash and jihadist fighters particularly come from a small area in Johannesburg. South Africans, particularly youth, have started to enter the Middle East through air traveling to Turkey, advancing toward the south to join the terror group posts in Syria and Iraq.
The outlet noted that the ISIS work around the Internet, specifically on social media, as well as several clerics on the ground, in attempts to brainwash the youth of South Africa through sophisticated and psychological methods that cover the truth behind the real life of a jihadist.
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Iraqi Ambassador to South Africa Al-Alawi said, "We could say with certainty that 50 to 60 persons, South African citizens, have joined ISIS in Syria," adding that while some reports indicate that more than 100 have crossed into the Turkish border, as many as 300 more have followed.
Al-Alawi said recruits are reported to have come from around the country, but most of those who get lured by the false promises of the life behind the Islamic State hail from the two Johannesburg districts, Mayfair and Fordsburg.
Earlier this year, two South Africans who came from the said area were killed. It is worth noting that the same downtown area was once the refuge of the famed British terrorist Samantha Lewthwaite, also known as the "White Widow."
A few weeks ago, five men were caught red-handed with $6 million in hand trying to leave the country through Johannesburg's main international airport. They were suspected to be headed toward the Syrian and Iraqi ISIS camps.
Martin Ewi, analyst of the Institute for Security Studies, said the reason why some South Africans want to be part of the ISIS is "because of their belief in the message, the propaganda."
