Johannesburg, South Africa- The United States (US) Embassy in South Africa has issued out a potential terrorist attack in Sandton during the upcoming weekend.
However, the Embassy did not shed specific details pertaining to the actual location but advised residents to stay away from malls and large public gatherings.
“The US government has received information that terrorists may be planning to conduct an attack targeting large gatherings of people at an unspecified location in the greater Sandton area of Johannesburg, South Africa, on 29 October 2022.
There is no further information regarding the timing, method, or target of the potential attack. The US Embassy has advised staff to avoid crowds of people and other large public gatherings in the greater Sandton area of Johannesburg during the weekend of 29-30 October 2022,” read a statement from the Embassy.
According to the Institute for Security Studies (ISS), the debate of a potential terrorist attack has risen to a different level via the growing assertiveness of Islamic State in the brutal insurgency in Mozambique’s northernmost Cabo Delgado province.
“The Islamic State threat should not be taken lightly as the terror group has executed similar threats elsewhere. Boko Haram warned Cameroon in 2014 not to join Nigeria and other Lake Chad Basin countries in a war against the terror group. When the government failed to heed the warning, several attacks were carried out in Cameroon.
Kenya offers perhaps the most telling precedent for South Africa. Since it sent troops across the border into Somalia to counter al-Shabaab in 2011, the country has suffered numerous retaliatory attacks on its own soil by the terror group, in which many civilians have died.
The Islamic State has sleeper cells in South Africa and has recruited South Africans into its ranks. Some of these extremists fought with the group in Syria, some are involved in Cabo Delgado, and others are lying low in various cities in the country.
Experts have suggested that all relevant South African State institutions such as intelligence, Police and the prosecuting authority should beef up their counter-terrorism expertise. If an attack did occur, the State should be able to react quickly with the goal of arresting and prosecuting suspects to send a strong message of deterrence.
What is worrying is that direct links between Islamic State elements in South Africa and those in Mozambique have already been detected. For example, security sources have revealed that two accomplices of Islamic State suspects in South Africa were identified by South African officials in a photograph which the Cabo Delgado insurgents once posted,” said Peter Fabricius, ISS Consultant.
