Sudan’s ISIS: New terrorist is born on the Chad border

Sherif Abdel Zaher

Terrorist operations continue to pose a major threat to the African Sahara, especially in Chad across the Sudanese border, and the likelihood grows of ISIS fleeing to that region after its defeat in Iraq and Syria, prompting Sudan to secure itself across the Chadian border. The Sudanese army on Thursday, December 6 detained and extradited six Boko Haram elements with Chadian citizenship.

The spokesman for the Sudanese armed forces, General Amer Mohammed Hassan, said in a statement that military intelligence was able to arrest six members of ISIS who have Chadian citizenship and crossed Sudan’s borders.

Based on the security cooperation relations in accordance with the protocol of cooperation in the field of security and monitoring of the common borders that was signed between Sudan, Libya, Niger and Chad, the detained terrorists were handed over to the competent security agencies in their own countries, Hassan said, adding that it was agreed to continue exchanging information and coordinating to combat terrorism and transborder crime.

Sudan’s army confirmed its readiness to detect any terrorist elements entering Sudanese territory in cooperation with other security agencies.

ISIS in Sudan

According to the Sudanese website Sudafax, ISIS criticized the screening of the Sudanese film “You Will Die at Twenty”, which won a number of international awards, at the DAL Cultural Forum.

The terrorist organization also announced at the same time its readiness for what it called the protection of religion from society and from stray attempts aiming to spread lewdness among people.

Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok has warned that failure to remove Sudan from the list of state sponsors of terrorism will lead to the collapse of the country, which in turn will lead to the expansion of ISIS’s influence.

Meanwhile, African affairs researcher Mohamed Ezz El-Din said that Sudan has recently witnessed large infiltrations of Boko Haram elements seeking to carry out terrorist operations across the border with Chad.

He told the Reference that after the defeat of ISIS in Syria and Iraq, the organization is trying to return with strength and expand in Africa.

Boko Haram elements in Sudan have a strong relationship with ISIS, Ezz El-Din emphasized, noting that ISIS has influence and ties that extend across the border.