Coalition to boost Africa’s anti-ISIS capabilities – US official

QAMISHLI, Syria (North Press) – A US official of the Department of State said that the US-led Global Coalition has established a focus group to help African states in their counter-terrorism capabilities.

In an interview with White House correspondent Pearl Matibe, Ian J McCary, the US Department of State’s Bureau of Counterterrorism’s Deputy Special Envoy for the Global Coalition, said that many terrorist organizations have emerged in Africa under the banner of ISIS.

To deal with the situation, McCary said, the Coalition  “established a focus group of stakeholder countries,… working closely with our African partners, to help them build up their own counterterrorism capabilities so that they can defend their publics, and defend their sovereignty against threats posed by violent extremist organizations, including some self-identified affiliates of Daesh or ISIS in that region.”

Regarding some “serious governance challenges” which creates a fertile ground for these branches “to move in and seek to exploit that void, the official stressed that that these challenges surpass the Coalition’s scope of action.

“The Global Coalition is specifically focused on helping African states build up their counterterrorism capacities, but we’re also constantly coordinating with other parts of the US Government and development agencies in other areas—or in other partner countries—to see what we can do also to address the broader challenges.”