How the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda manipulate Amnesty International

“It is not the most powerful nor the most intelligent of actors that will survive new conflicts, it is the ones that are most adaptable to change,” to paraphrase Charles Darwin. For the past five years, ISIS and Al-Qaida affiliates in Africa: Alshabaab, Boko Haram and ISWAP (Boko Haram), have mastered the tactic of manipulating the eco-system of field researchers working for local and international Non Governmental Organisations.

The Jihadist take advantage of NGOs like Amnesty International, Human Rights and others to generate exaggerated and untrue Gross Violations of Human Rights and war crimes reports against the security and military forces of state and regional partners pursuing the global war on terror.

While the reports distract, demoralise state security and military forces and place them on the defensive, they legitimise and embolden the jihadists. The regularly produced and strategically published reports provide fresh oxygen for terrorist groups to survive, recover, build more violent capacity, produce online propaganda and maintain the capacity to launch deadly attacks targeting soft civilian and hard military positions in Africa.

In Africa, ISIS and Al-Qaeda affiliated terrorist groups operate predominantly in North East Nigeria states of Borno, Adamawa and Yobe (BAY States); the fringes of Lake Chad Basin countries (Cameroon, Tchad, Niger Republic); and the Horn of Africa. A field research, operations and reporting policy review of humanitarian watchdogs like Amnesty International and others operating in the Lake Chad Basin, the Sahel and Horn of Africa is overdue.

Source: The Eagle Online