Daesh still recruiting children, resurgence risks persist: UN report

The Daesh terrorist group still commands between 5,000 and 7,000 members across its former stronghold in Syria and Iraq and its members pose the most serious threat in Afghanistan today, UN experts have said in a report.

The experts monitoring sanctions against the terrorist group said on Monday that during the first half of 2023, the threat posed by Daesh remained “mostly high in conflict zones and low in non-conflict areas".

But the panel added in the report to the UN Security Council that “the overall situation is dynamic,” and despite significant losses in the group's leadership and reduced activity in Syria and Iraq, the risk of its resurgence remains.

"The group has adapted its strategy, embedding itself with local populations, and has exercised caution in choosing battles that are likely to result in limited losses while rebuilding and recruiting from camps in the northeast of the Syrian Arab Republic and from vulnerable communities, including in neighbouring countries,” the experts said.

Daesh declared a self-styled caliphate in a large swath of territory in Syria and Iraq that it seized in 2014, and it was declared defeated in Iraq in 2017 following a three-year battle that left tens of thousands of people dead and cities in ruins.

In 2013, Türkiye became one of the first countries to declare Daesh a terrorist organisation.

Despite sustained counter-terrorism operations, Daesh continues to command between 5,000 and 7,000 members across Iraq and Syria, “most of whom are fighters,” though it has reduced its attacks deliberately “to facilitate recruiting and re-organisation,” the experts said.

Youngsters in the grasp of Daesh

Northeast Syria is the site of two closed camps – al Hawl and Roj – where the experts said some 55,000 people with alleged links or family ties to Daesh are living in “dire” conditions and “significant humanitarian hardship”.

Approximately two-thirds of the population are children, including over 11,800 Iraqis, nearly 16,000 Syrians and over 6,700 youngsters from more than 60 other countries, the experts said.

The panel quoted one unnamed country as saying that Daesh has maintained its “Cubs of the Caliphate” programme, recruiting children in the overcrowded al Hawl camp.

In addition, more than 850 boys, some as young as 10, were in detention and rehabilitation centres in the northeast, the experts said.

In Afghanistan, the panel said UN members assess Daesh poses the most serious terrorist threat to the country and the wider region.

Daesh has reportedly increased its operational capabilities and now has an estimated 4,000 to 6,000 terrorists and family members in Afghanistan, it said.

In Africa, the experts said the deployment of regional forces in Mozambique’s Cabo Delgado province disrupted the Daesh affiliate, and regional countries estimate it now has 180-220 male terrorists with battlefield experience, down from 280 previously.

In the east, the experts said several countries expressed concern that terrorist groups like Daesh could exploit political violence and instability in conflict-wracked Sudan.

And some countries assess that the Daesh affiliate in Africa's Sahel “has become increasingly autonomous and had played a significant role in the escalation of violence in the region, alongside other terrorist groups,” they said.