The Islamic State Central Africa Province (ISCAP) in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) launched attacks to dislodge and drive out a local militia group identified as the Mayi Mayi in its bid to establish dominance. ISCAP attacked a camp of Mai-Mai militiamen based in Vuhambya in the town of Lisasa, Beni territory, North Kivu.
Intelligence assets on the area reported that ISCAP attacked the MAYI Mayi camps, setting it on fire and driving them into hiding with a show of might that residents are yet to see. The fight between the two groups that have been operating in the regions for a couple of years is an indicator that ISCAP is disinterested in sharing the region and is now more than ever determined to establish an Islamic caliphate in eastern DRC.
ISCAP is borrowing from its West African counterpart, ISWAP by fighting local militias that stand in the way of the group’s consolidation of power and dominance as a formidable ISIS component in the region.
CT actors in DRC especially the military and UN peacekeepers continue to fall short in their effectiveness in capping the group’s continued growth and terrorizing of civilians who have fled their homes in the thousands. The shortcomings of the CT operations in North Kivu and Ituri province can be credited to the security apparatus persistent treatment of ISCAP as a local guerilla rebel group, underestimating the resolve and ignoring intelligence that points to the group having international ties with ISIS-Central, ISCAP Mozambique, and Tanzania as well as IS-Somalia.
Therefore, for the group to be defeated, an overhaul in the countermeasures ought to be employed and the threat level upped to enable the use of more stealth, ruthless and holistic strategies to eradicate the threat by ISCAP both to DRC and the region.
