According to Habboub Cherkaoui, Daesh is "intensely active" in the Sahel

Jefe antiterrorista de Marruecos: “El Sahel es el foco que más preocupa a Rabat”

photo_camera REUTERS/AHMED ELJECHTIMI - Habboub Cherkaoui, Director of the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigations

The Sahel region, the scene of an unprecedented rise of the Islamic State (IS) in recent months, has become the terrorist focus of most concern to Morocco as a "safe haven" for jihadists, the head of Morocco's counter-terrorism service, Habboub Cherkaoui, says in an interview.

The director of the Central Bureau of Judicial Investigation (BCIJ) receives Efe in Rabat in his office at the institution, which is dependent on Moroccan internal intelligence (DGST) and which he has headed for a year and a half. It is in charge of all terrorism-related cases in the Maghreb country.

For Cherkaoui, Daesh is "intensely active" in the Sahel - a strip of land that runs from east to west Africa below the Sahara desert - which also generates "great concern at the regional and international level, and poses a threat not only to African countries but also to Arab and European countries".

"The focus of greatest concern for Morocco today is the Sahel area, which has become a safe and fertile haven for terrorist networks (...) and where IS has moved to after its defeat in Syria and Iraq," he says.

The terrorist escalation in the area coincides with two successive coups d'état in Mali, in August 2020 and May 2021, and another in Burkina Faso last January, to which must be added the withdrawal of French anti-terrorist troops from Mali and the suspension of the work of European Union military instructors.

In addition to terrorism, the counter-terrorism chief stresses, the Sahel is an area in which the activity of different organised crime networks specialising in human trafficking, illegal emigration, smuggling and trafficking in arms and drugs is proliferating.

"Morocco is also concerned about collusion between (terrorism) and criminal networks that can provide funding to terrorist organisations through their profits," he stresses.

Habboub Cherkaoui, jefe del Buró Central de Investigación Judicial (BCIJ, servicio antiterrorista marroquí)
"Daesh continues to gain followers in Morocco"

"The ideology of the Islamic State continues to gain followers in Morocco and people loyal to this group always keep the desire to go to the hotspots of conflict, but in particular to the Sahel area," Cherkaoui says.

According to the police official, in the face of these threats, the Moroccan security services are acting "effectively within the framework of their anticipation strategy", by arresting those who plan to emigrate to these areas or to carry out attacks in Morocco.

In recent years, the Moroccan counter-terrorism service has detected links between jihadists arrested in Morocco and the Sahel area, and most of the firearms seized with those arrested come from this sub-Saharan region.

In October 2020, Morocco dismantled a terrorist cell in Tangiers, in the north of the country, made up of four suspected IS supporters who intended to join the group's affiliate in the sub-Saharan region, where Al-Qaeda also operates.

The Moroccan official criticises the fact that, despite this danger, the Algerian authorities, who share direct borders with Mali and Niger, "continue to refuse to collaborate with their Moroccan counterparts in the fight against terrorism".

Morocco and Algeria are engaged in an open diplomatic crisis against the backdrop of the Western Sahara conflict. Their land borders have been closed since 1994 and in 2021 Algiers broke off diplomatic relations with Rabat.

"We are concerned about the proximity of our territory to the camps of the (Sahrawi independence) Polisario Front in Tindouf (in southwestern Algeria), as it is confirmed that there are young people who were recruited there by local imams and sent to the ranks of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)," he says.

Miembros del servicio de seguridad antiterrorista de Marruecos en la sede de la Oficina Central de Investigación Judicial (BCIJ) en Sale, cerca de la capital, Rabat
Morocco considers repatriating its jihadists

Cherkaoui notes that Daesh has lost its strongholds in the Middle East and Rabat is considering how to repatriate Moroccan fighters for prosecution at home. This repatriation will include their family members trapped in the area.

According to BCIJ figures, 1,663 people moved from Morocco to the Syrian-Iraqi area to fight in the ranks of various jihadist groups, 1,062 of whom joined Daesh.

Of these fighters, 747 died, 251 were arrested in Syria and Iraq, and 270 returned to Morocco; half of them were tried thanks to a law that punishes "joining conflict zones" with up to ten years in prison.

Along with these jihadists travelled 291 women, many of whom had children once they settled in the area. A hundred of them returned to Morocco, and it is estimated that 136 women and 630 minors are still detained in the region, as only 82 of them returned.

The latest anti-terrorist operation carried out by the Maghreb country on 16 March resulted in the simultaneous arrest of five 'lone wolves' loyal to Daesh, who were planning to attack government installations and assassinate state officials.

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