adminPretoria – Eleven terror suspects with links to Islamic State and al-Qaeda might consider using South Africa as a base, the presidency has warned. The group are on a global terror watch list.
This week a proclamation was published in the Government Gazette listing the 11 wanted men and women from France, Norway, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and Iraq, the Times reported yesterday.
The 11 have been identified as financiers, recruiters and logistical supporters of terror groups.
One suspect South Africa has been warned to look out for is Norwegian Anders Cameroon Ostensvig Dale, who, according to the US state department, travelled to Yemen in 2008 where he joined al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
There he was taught to make bomb-belts, improvised explosive devices, and larger explosives used in car bombs, says the US department.
Another is French-born Emilie Konig, who, according to Reuters, travelled to Syria in 2012 to fight for Islamic State.
A third suspect is Kevin Guiavarch, who, with his wife Salma Oueslati went to Syria in 2012, where Guiavarch fought alongside Nusra Front militants, Reuters reported.
The couple also “support individuals who are planning to travel from France to Syria in order to join terrorist groups”.
The most recent top terror suspect who was found to have stayed in South Africa was UK national Samantha Lewthwaite who is thought to have been behind the attack on Kenya’s Westgate Mall in September 2013.
Hussein Solomon, a senior politics professor at the University of the Free State, told the Times South Africa has been used by global terror networks since as far back as the 1990s. — News24
Bongani Moyo
Online Reporter