Islamic State-linked groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique are the newest entries on a FILE – An Armed Forces of the Democratic Republic of Congo (FARDC) soldier takes part in a patrol in a village near Beni, Feb. 18, 2020, following an attack allegedly perpetrated by members of the rebel group Allied Democratic Forces.“We do support the FARDC [Congolese army] in terms of their efforts against violent extremists with particularly four lines of effort: bolstering civil-military operations and capabilities, military engineering, strategic communications and English-language laboratories with the goal of empowering civilian leadership to promote structural reform and professionalization of the military,” he said. “I think these are prime examples of how the United States is really running with the vision of the Biden administration and then the statements of Secretary [of State Antony] Blinken about emphasizing our partnerships with African partners and building local capacity, because it’s true that through local capacity that there will be sustainable gains that are able to be realized through the future.” Godfrey emphasized that the approach is not new. FILE – The remains of a burned and destroyed home is seen in the recently attacked village of Aldeia da Paz outside Macomia, in the Cabo Delgado Province in northern Mozambique, Aug. 24, 2019.“The strategy we’re currently working under in Cabo Delgado and in Mozambique is a continuation of work that began under the previous administration,” he said. “There certainly is a keen focus on the terrorist threat in Africa on the part of the Biden-Harris administration, but some of the lines of effort that we’re currently working on there are ones that we’ve been formulating for a bit of time now.” Cabo Delgado is a northern province in Mozambique. And that is what both experts left unsaid: how long it might take to go from “naming and shaming” to actually defeating these groups. Eighteen of the designated foreign terrorist groups landed on the U.S. list in 1997. Al-Qaida has been on the list since 1999. Only 14 groups have been de-listed since 1997. So how long will it take to vanquish these two new groups, which only started to show their mettle in the past three years? That, officials did not say.
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