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Despite severe censorship imposed by security, and society is feeling its results, Tunisia’s fight continues to address jihadist threats, the most recent of which was the young Tunisian Brahim al-Essawi, the suspect in the Nice attack. in France.
According to the police of both countries, al-Issawi was not included in any Tunisian or French jihadist list, as indicated by the Tunisian journalist, specialist in jihadist group affairs, Bassel Tarjuman, saying: “The jihadist groups continue to recruit and attract new elements, many of which are unknown to services. This is the case with Al-Issawi, the author of the Nice terrorist operation. “
The allegations spread on social media, attributing the Nice attack to a previously unknown group called “Al-Mahdi in southern Tunisia,” which Tunisian authorities said they are investigating.
In recent years, Tunisia has witnessed jihadist attacks carried out mainly by extremist people, who are being polarized through the Internet.
“As long as there are open spaces of communication through which terrorist groups can easily transmit their extremist ideology, we must always expect the recruitment of new generations of terrorists,” Turjuman told Al-Hurra.
The polarization processes carried out by terrorist groups in all countries of the world are similar, according to the writer specializing in jihadist group affairs, who added: “These groups do not go to anyone, but rather try to recruit new members through on social media, and sometimes through mosques and tight circles. “
Turjuman referred to the terrorist attack in Tunisia last September and said that “Imam Jameh was the one who attracted the terrorists.”
Security alone is not enough
After the 2011 revolution, the phenomenon of religious extremism increased in Tunisia and armed attacks targeted the police, army forces and foreign tourists, and since then the authorities have tightened control over places of worship.
Tunisia witnessed bloody attacks in 2015. In March, an attack on the Bardo Museum in the capital killed 22 people, including 21 foreign tourists and a Tunisian policeman. This was the first attack against foreigners in Tunisia since 2002, and the first that ISIS has adopted.
And in June, an attack claimed by ISIS also targeted a hotel near Susa, killing 38 people, including 30 Britons.
In November, a Tunisian man blew himself up on a bus carrying presidential security personnel, killing 12 of them in central Tunis. ISIS also claimed responsibility for this attack.
After this attack, Tunisia declared a state of emergency in the country, and it has been in force ever since.
The security situation has improved significantly in the last three years, but attacks against security forces still occur, especially in the mountainous areas on the border with Algeria and sometimes in the capital Tunis.
Under this censorship, “terrorist groups are those who are waiting for a young man or girl to appear or try to contact or seek to be lured,” according to Torjoman.
Turjuman believes that “the role of security institutions remains deficient as long as national, regional and international strategies to confront extremist ideology are not put in place,” and said: “Relying solely on security institutions to confront extremism cannot succeed in dealing with it and dismantling it. “
Tarjuman pointed to what he called “the size of the great and growing terrorist threats” that Tunisia is witnessing and arriving from Libya and northern Mali and the borders with Algeria.
He went on to say: “There is no regional strategy to deal with terrorism in Libya due to the assessment of the situation by different parties. Each country has its accounts, while Tunisia is the biggest loser of all these terrorist threats against the region. “.
The writer specializing in jihadist groups highlighted the need for “integration between all the countries of the region to confront terrorism, especially the countries of the European Union that operate in isolation.”
Returned from the fight
In the same context, Munir Adeeb, a researcher on extremist group affairs, told Al-Hurra that the international coalition against ISIS faces a crisis because the organization targeted only military and security targets, while there were no efforts to dismantle the extremist ideas expressed by groups that move in cyberspace. And through it, you can perform operations.
US President Donald Trump announced the fall of the Islamic State (ISIS) on March 22, 2019.
Since then, “ISIS has turned into sleeper cells, active and inactive. Individuals from these cells returned to Europe, including those who practiced terrorism in the Syrian cities of Raqqa and Mosul, which ISIS declared their supposed status on June 29. 2014, “says Adeeb.
“Here, the danger to the organization became greater than it was when it controlled limited geographical areas, which affects the security of Arab and European countries,” he added.
“We found that these people have returned to some European capitals that previously participated in the international coalition to confront ISIS, to take revenge on those who helped overthrow their country and kill their successor,” he added.
According to the Emirates Center for Studies, Tunisia has become one of the top countries whose citizens move to Syria, Yemen and Libya over the past nine years. Estimates of their numbers vary between 2,500 and 3,000.
According to a study published by the center last September, there are no documents that show that these people fought in pockets of conflict. Rather, there are identification documents that they traveled to Turkey and did not leave it, and “such a matter allows them to return as normal citizens who can move freely within Tunisia and carry out operations that undermine security and stability. “.
Adeeb comments: “I think the danger is still great and threatening to the world and it has become greater than it was when these people controlled a known geographic area.”
Absence of dreams
The coastal state of Sfax, from which El-Issawi comes, is one of the most important points from which attempts to migrate are launched, and in the summer it witnesses, in particular, incidents of sinking vessels in which dozens die. .
And attempts to migrate from the Tunisian coast to Europe are active through “death boats”, and immigrants are arrested almost daily, but Al-Issawi was able to reach Italy safely by small boat, in September. past.
According to the Tunisian Ministry of the Interior, from the beginning of this year to mid-September, 8,581 people tried to cross Tunisian waters towards European shores, including 2,104 of foreign nationality.
Yassin al-Issawi told news agencies about his brother’s ambitions, saying: “I used to say that I want to work and get married and buy a house and a car like everyone else.”
But, as soon as he arrived in Nice, the young Tunisian entered the church, killed two people and beheaded a woman while singing “God is great.” “Economic conditions do not push young people to radicalize, on the contrary, they push young people to two more dangerous issues, namely the absence of dreams and the absence of hope,” says Turjuman.
He added: “When young people jump into death boats in search of the future and hope, this means that the situation has reached a very dangerous stage, and this is reflected in the deterioration of economic and social conditions in the last ten years based mainly on the absence of dream and hope of young people who are on the fringes of a reality that allows them to exist and build their life in a balanced way “.
