Morocco Warns of ISIS Expansion in Sahel as Terrorism Threat Grows

In an interview with the EFE Agency, the director of the BCIJ, Habboub Cherkaoui, indicated that the Sahel has become a fertile ground on which "the Islamic State" takes pleasure in expanding its activity in a worrying way. "What most bothers and worries Morocco at the moment is the Sahel region, which has become a safe and fertile refuge for terrorist networks [...] and where ISIS has moved after its defeat in Syria and Iraq," he warned.

Haboub Cherkaoui affirms that now Daesh has settled in the Sahelo-Saharan strip and acts in complicity with other terrorist groups with the bonus of the recruitment of fighters from neighboring countries. In another interview with L’Opinion, the director of the BCIJ had already established links between the terrorist groups active in the Sahel region and the Polisario, which, according to him, has "become a supplier of combatants".

But it’s not just terrorism that worries Morocco in the Sahel. There is also the proliferation of organized criminal gangs, active in human trafficking, illegal immigration, smuggling and arms and drug trafficking. According to Hbboub Cherkaoui, the withdrawal of foreign troops from the region has somewhat strengthened the presence of these groups. Morocco still remembers the murder of Moroccan truck drivers in February 2021. An incident that has reinforced fears about the threats to Moroccan interests.