The uncertainty and confusion caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is being “widely exploited by terror groups for spinning a plethora of sinister schemes”, which could lead to a new tide of violence against people and governments.
This is the claim of a new international study published in the peer-reviewed Global Security: Health, Science and Policy, which analysed terrorist activity and trends across the globe since the pandemic began.
“Despite the overriding media attention to the COVID-19 pandemic and its near-total eclipse of security issues, the terrorism milieu has hardly taken a pause from its deadly pursuits or suspended the execution of its plans,” lead author Professor of Psychology Arie Kruglanski from the University of Maryland, explains.
This “milieu” of terrorism so far in 2020 has been considerable. The team of experts note “far from uniting humanity against a common threat,” the pandemic has enabled – or at least not stopped – a vast range of incidents.
These include: ISIS attacks in seven countries in March alone; the Islamic State Khorasan Province carrying out a “devastating” attack in a funeral parlour in Afghanistan (24 killed, 68 wounded); Al-Qaeda-affiliated Al Shabab organisation reporting 37 attacks in Somalia and Kenya (52 dead, 35 wounded); and in Mali, al Qaeda-linked Jama’at Nasr al-Islam kidnapping a high-profile opposition leader.
Far-right extremists “have not been ‘sitting idle'” either, the study states. So far, in 2020, the far-right has been responsible for 90% of terrorist attacks in the US compared to 66% in 2019. This includes 50 vehicle ramming attacks since late May, targeting protesters. There have also been right-wing attacks against anti-lockdown protests in Germany.
Additionally, even though there’s been no attribution to any known extremist groups, there has been a significant worldwide rise in cyberattacks – mostly targeting hospitals.
What this suggests is that terror organisations have use ..
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