NEW YORK: Despite territorial defeats and leadership losses, the threat posed by Daesh has been rising since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and continues to persist, underlining the importance of implementing non-military measures to counter terrorism, the UN said on Tuesday.
Daesh affiliates continue to exploit conflicts and social inequalities to incite unrest and plan terrorist attacks, the organization added. Pandemic-related restrictions and the shift to the digital space have provided the group with opportunities to intensify its recruitment efforts and attract more funding, and for the past year it has increasingly been using drones in attacks, as seen in northern Iraq.
Vladimir Voronkov, the under-secretary-general for counter-terrorism and head of the UN Office of Counter-Terrorism, told the Security Council that Daesh’s upward trend has been possible in part as a result of the group’s adoption of a decentralized internal structure based around a “general directorate of provinces” and associated “offices.” These are designed to manage and finance terrorist operations around the globe, from central, southern and western Africa to Europe and Afghanistan, and make it clear that the terror group has long-term goals and aspirations, he added.
“Better understanding and continued monitoring of this structure are indispensable for countering and preventing the threat posed by Daesh,” Voronkov said.
He was speaking during a meeting of the Security Council to discuss the UN secretary-general’s 15th report on the threat posed by Daesh to international peace and security. It states that this threat remains particularly high in conflict zones. However it warns that it might soon spread to more stable areas where the extremist group and its affiliates are trying to “incite fear and project strength” as they constantly work to exploit “security gaps and conditions conducive to the spread of terrorism to recruit and to organize and execute complex attacks.”
The situation, the report adds, is further exacerbated by the downturn in the global economy and rising inflation, together with the measures adopted by governments to address them.
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