Reports of the death of Islamic State have been greatly exaggerated.
The terrorist group was declared to have been defeated in 2019 after it lost the final portion of its territory in Syria.
At its height just a few years earlier, Islamic State (IS – ISIS, ISIL, Daesh) ruled a caliphate that covered a third of Iraq and a quarter of Syria, incorporating eight million people.
An Islamic State fighter in Iraq in 2021 [Image credit Wilson Center]
This week the US Department of Defense reported that IS had carried out 153 attacks in Iraq and Syria in the first half of 2024. If this trend continues then IS will more than double the number of attacks it carried out in Iraq and Syria the previous year.
Islamic State around the world
IS fighters in Iraq and Syria are also attempting to free former comrades from prison and plotting attacks in other countries.
During its years in power, the IS leadership also cultivated affiliates in other parts of the world.
One of the most notable is the Islamic State Khorasan Province (ISKP), based in Afghanistan and active in Iran and Pakistan.
ISKP is reported to be the most active branch of IS in planning attacks against the West. It is also believed to be ISKP fighters who killed 145 people in an attack at a concert hall near Moscow in March.
The number of attacks carried out by Islamic State Mozambique (ISM) in that country’s northern province of Cabo Delgado has also increased in 2024 from the previous year.
Barnabas Aid has given emergency aid to Christians in Burkina Faso affected by terrorist violence. Islamic State currently controls around 40% of the country’s territory
ISM is strengthened by fighters affiliated to Islamic State Central Africa Province (also known as the Allied Democratic Forces) who have travelled to Cabo Delgado from north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
“Islamist fighters seem to move freely between both war scenarios,” said Professor Fernando Cardoso, a geopolitical expert.
“Many of these heavily armed jihadist fighters, who are causing havoc in the eastern Congolese provinces of Ituri and North Kivu, have increasingly fled to the northern Mozambican province of Cabo Delgado in recent months,” he continued.
“There, they pursue their political goals according to a script dictated by the Islamic State. According to IS, Cabo Delgado is supposed to be integrated into a caliphate to be established along the entire Swahili coast.”
Elsewhere, through its Islamic State Sahara Province, IS currently controls more than 40% of the land in Burkina Faso.
Responding in prayer
Experts have pointed to the tri-border area of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger as a potential location for an IS “leadership hub” given the success that IS is enjoying there. At least 15 Christians were killed in an Islamist attack on a church in this region in February.
All kinds of people are at risk from IS, including Muslims. Yet it should be noted that IS propaganda takes a particularly sick pleasure in the slaughter of Christians.
This persistence and resurgence of this evil is cause for concern. But as Christians we ought to respond with prayer rather than anxiety. We need to remember to trust in our Sovereign Lord.
Please join us in praying that the plans of IS to subjugate and kill will come to nothing. Pray especially for Christians in Africa, Asia and the Middle East who are among those at particular risk. Ask that the Lord will protect His people and uphold His own glory, just as He has promised.
“The LORD is a refuge for the oppressed, a stronghold in times of trouble. Those who know your name trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.”
Psalm 9:9-10
