The Islamic States (ISIS) branch in Central Africa, (ISCAP) has inspired a jihadist race in East Africa. The group’s extreme terrorist activities in Northern Mozambique’s Cabo-Delgado prefecture and along Tanzania’s Ruvuma riverine has been noted by the Al-Qaeda branch in Somalia, Harakat Shabaab Mujahideen (HSM) which has many sympathizers and sleeper cells in Mtwara, Pwani, and Tanga regions of Tanzania.
The untimely success of ISCAP in Mozambique has HSM edgy about its regional profile and as choice jihadist destination. The ISCAP rank and file is largely Tanzanian, and worse, former assets of HSM. HSM is also envious since this rank and file was also trained and tested in Somalia while others were denied chance to join Harakat Shabaab Mujahideen. Another notable is that, the ISCAP rank is largely former membership of Jabha East Africa, the HSM splinter group that birthed Abnaa Ul Calipha, the ISIS branch in Somalia. This further confirms how HSM has lost credibility regionally as a jihadist outfit. ISCAP is privy to the persecution of Tanzanian’s fighting for Harakat Shabaab Mujahideen. Most have been killed after being accused of spying. Those who made it home joined the rival jihadist group to both spite their former comrades and rediscover themselves.
To outmatch ISCAP and Abnaa Ul-Calipha, HSM is escalating its extremist’s activities and conducting more attacks. The more the attacks attract international coverage, the more the groups profile rises thus attracting followers and outbidding its competitors. HSM hopes to curtail ISCAP prolific gains and spite on its rank and file which has been taunting and inspiring defections of Tanzanian brethren in Somalia. This means there’s a jihadist race in East and Central Africa and the region’s security intelligence services must robustly curtail this race.
