An average of one African fighter a day—which could mean 30 African fighters a month—is reportedly leaving South Africa daily to join and fight for the Islamic State, raising concerns about the plight of young people there and the repercussions of the ISIS recruitment in that country.
Iraqi Ambassador to South Africa Hashim Al-Alawi told Fox News that the situation is "serious" and requires urgent attention.
He said young South Africans are flocking to the Middle East to join the black-clad terrorist army in Syria and Iraq, mostly using Turkey as a transfer point to the so-called caliphate.
"We could say with certainty that 50 to 60 persons, South African citizens, have joined ISIS in Syria, [but] there are some reports suggesting that more than a hundred have done so, and as many as 300 or more,'' said Al-Alawi.
Children as young as one have also accompanied at least eight families who have decided to join the ISIS using Turkey as the route, Aljazeera previously reported. This has prompted Turkey to clamp down on suspicious travelers by deporting a number of South Africans and several British citizens while apparently travelling to join ISIS.
Al-Alawi told Fox News that while ISIS recruits come from all over the country, most are "radicalised" and lured from two downtown districts of Johannesburg, Mayfair and Fordsburg, where two South Africans recently killed in Syria this year came from.
Fox News reported that the downtown area is off-limits to non-Muslims. One of its news crew said they recently tried to film near a Mayfair mosque but was "threatened and chased." "The ominous encounter raised for the first time the spectre of no-go zones'' or areas where Muslim extremists have sole control of the streets.''
Citing sources, Fox News said ISIS is able to recruit South Africans by looking for them through the Internet and through radical clerics on the ground.
"They are using sophisticated psychological methods to brainwash and recruit young South Africans. The radicalising messages include instructions on how to get from Africa to Syria and Iraq without detection," Fox News said.
"Those who respond to ISIS' call leave through Johannesburg's main international airport, where just weeks ago, five men were nabbed with $6 million and believed headed for the Islamic State. Earlier this year, a 15-year-old girl was pulled from a plane minutes before takeoff after her family told police she had taken a large amount of money and disappeared. She was on a flight to Turkey, to slip into Syria to become an ISIS bride of war,'' Fox News said.
