Maldives: A tourist paradise that ISIS is trying to turn into hell

Nahla Abdel Moneim

With governments preoccupied with tackling the negative effects of the worldwide crisis of the coronavirus pandemic, terrorist groups seek to exploit the crisis to extend their influence over new regions and tighten control over strategic geographies, given the economic and tourism importance of the Maldives that ISIS has chosen as a new front for the expansion of the pandemic.

On April 16, 2020, ISIS, on its social media platform, Telegram, adopted the attack, which targeted five marine boats in a port in Mahipadho Island, north of the Maldives, located in the Indian Ocean, in the Asian continent.

According to the internal newspapers, the five boats belonged to the police, one to an oil company and another to the ambulance, while the remaining two were returned to government agencies.

The boats were targeted by bombs that were completely burned on April 10, 2020 and at that time the authorities considered them a terrorist operation orchestrated.

Revenge on the government

During the declaration that ISIS claimed responsibility for the incident, it showed some of its ideological orientation towards the region as it considered the attack as a retaliation against the government and its arms, which he considered infidels and apostates according to his vision.

He explained this by taking democracy as a way to rule, and that the ruling party in the country with the methods it adopts is far from religion – according to the ISIS report. It is a disbeliever and it is possible to carry out against it bloody attacks and sabotage all its property.

Consequently, the Asian diplomat website considered that the new ISIS attack is closer to the classification as a revenge from the government, as it constitutes strong security campaigns against groups ideologically linked to ISIS and terrorist groups in Pakistan, and these government campaigns began to increase in strength at the end of 2019.

Diplomate also confirmed that the organization intensified its threats to the government through its media channels after the ISIS named Muhammad Amin as an international terrorist by the US Treasury in September 2019.

Amin was working to recruit young people in the Maldives to join the ISIS group as well as the formation of cluster cells affiliated with the organization intellectually and organizationally, including a cell numbering about 30, according to the government.