JIHADIST GROUP #3 Islamic State in Somalia

Islamic State Province #1

Organisation overview:

Name: Islamic State Somali Province (IS-SLP)

Founded: October 2015

Headquarters: Galgala mountains, Puntland.

Cells/Branches: Somalia

Ideology: Salafist-Jihadist / Neo-takfirism

Typology: Armed group/insurgent

Alliances: Official province of the Islamic State Organisation

Overview:

The Islamic State continues to pose a global threat, despite the departure of several of its leaders in the past two years, with a growing threat in Africa itself. Among the various operational provinces of the Islamic State in Africa, albeit with reduced numbers compared to the other African provinces, there is also the one in Somalia.  Threatening the security of the Somali country, in fact, in addition to the violent military campaigns of al-Shabaab, there is also the operation of the Wilayah al-Somal, elevated to a province by the central leadership in 2017. The Islamic State in Somalia operates mainly in the mountainous areas of Puntland. However, in recent years it has also claimed several terrorist attacks in the rest of Somalia and also in the capital Mogadishu, returning to the headlines for its attacks also for the military campaign it has undertaken against its rival within the Somali jihadist galaxy, which it has discussed in the last month in two issues of the al-Naba newsletter.

Retracing the history of the Wilayah al-Somal

The history of IS-S can be traced back to 2012, when the al-Shabaab leadership sent a charismatic leader and religious exponent, Abdel Qadir Mumin, to Puntland to carry out a recruitment campaign and to establish an outpost of the group in the mountainous areas of the northern Somali hinterland.