Militant group ETIM, which has been targeted by China, remains active in Afghanistan, UN report says
- ETIM, a group affiliated with al-Qaeda, has sought to establish a Uygur state in Xinjiang and has helped move fighters across Afghanistan’s border into China
- Meanwhile, Africa has emerged as a new hotspot for jihadists and kidnappings for ransom, and China’s belt and road investments could eventually become targets
02:06
Tens of thousands of Afghans queue for passports to flee the country amid Taliban gains
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Wednesday said it was “positive” if Beijing was promoting “some kind of [Afghan] government … that’s truly representative and inclusive”.
“No one has an interest in a military takeover by the Taliban, the restoration of an Islamic emirate,” he told CNN-News18 television, an Indian English-language channel.
Faran Jeffery, deputy director of the Islamic Theology of Counterterrorism organisation in Britain, said China was not concerned with who held power in Afghanistan.
China a ‘welcome friend’ for reconstruction in Afghanistan: Taliban spokesman
“They also don’t particularly care if the Taliban seize Kabul, as long as their interests are protected,” Jeffery said. “China’s main concern when talking to the Taliban is the presence of anti-China militants in Afghanistan belonging to ETIM, which is also known as the Turkestan Islamic Party.
Militant groups active
The UNSC report said ETIM’s leaders Abdul Haq and Hajji Furqan are based in Hustak ravine in Afghanistan’s Jurm district, although Abdul Haq has been able to move between Badakhshan and Helmand provinces. A recent propaganda video showed members completing weapons training in Badakhshan province, demonstrating combat readiness.
ETIM’s Syrian faction, also known as the Turkestan Islamic Party (TIP), has a more global focus than the Afghan faction, although it has supported insurgents fighting government forces. It has between 1,500 and 3,000 fighters in the northwestern city of Idlib, the report said.
The faction fights alongside Hay’at Tahrir al-Sham (HTS), a former al-Qaeda affiliate and the predominant group in the region, which commands about 10,000 fighters.
According to the report, ETIM-TIP has established corridors to move fighters from Syria to Afghanistan, while the Uygur diaspora in Turkey has become an important source of new recruits.
Africa’s jihadist threat
However, Olivier Guitta, managing director of GlobalStrat, a security and geopolitical risk consultancy, said Chinese nationals in Africa have not been regularly targeted for kidnapping or other attacks by jihadists.
“There have been sporadic kidnappings of Chinese workers but more by bandits than jihadists,” Guitta said, adding that neither Isis nor al-Qaeda have threatened China directly as they have France, Britain and the US.
“Jihadist groups that pretend to defend all Muslims around the world – the ummah – have never spoken about the treatment of Uygur Muslims by China,” he said. “China should have been logically at the top of the targets list but it is not. For now, China is not likely to be targeted.”
“I doubt very much that … China would do better than other countries around the world facing jihadists, including Russia, the new big player in Africa,” Guitta said.
“There has already been an increase in Chinese private security operating in Africa and there might even be a firm – similar to the powerful Russian Wagner private military company – that would emerge to dominate the sector on the continent.
China keen to step up in Mideast as US shifts focus to Indo-Pacific
The UNSC report said kidnappings for ransom are a major source of income for groups operating in West Africa, and expatriate workers have been targeted.
The UNSC report also warned that lockdowns due to the Covid-19 pandemic had “artificially suppressed” terrorist activity in many areas, especially outside conflict zones.
“Attacks that will be executed when restrictions ease may have been planned in various locations,” the report said.