The South African government has
announced that it had to stop a
fifteen year old girl from travelling in
a plane to join the militant Islamist
group, The Islamic State. This was
reported on Tuesday by the
spokesperson for the State Security
ministry David Mahlobo, who added
that they were in the process of
establishing if the militant group
had established a recruitment
network in South Africa.
According to the statement which
was issued by the ministry, the girl,
whose name was not released, was
stopped on Sunday at the Cape
Town International Airport before
she could board a domestic flight to
Johannesburg. The statement further
stated that in Johannesburg, which
is a business hub, the girl was
supposedly going to catch another
flight. It was not specified in the
statement where she was destined.
However, according to another local
paper, the Star, the girl had been
planning to fly to Turkey, where she
was due to travel the last lag of her
journey by road into Syria, where she
would finally join the Islamic State.
The Ministry of State Security could
only reveal that they had been
tipped off after discovering that the
girl had been in contact with Islamic
State recruiters even though it was
not clear how she had been
recruited. All the information, the
statement revealed, was found in a
computer in her bedroom. The State
Security ministry statement also
revealed that the girl had been
returned to her family after the
members of her family had been
questioned and debriefed.
Even though the department did not
shed any further light on the
matter, citing the fact that the
investigations were still at an
advanced stage, local media
reported that the girl, whose mother
is a medical doctor at a local surgery
in Cape Town, had told her friends
that she was going to join the
militant group and, according to her
relatives, she had, of late, become
increasingly very political.
Many teenagers have travelled long
distances from countries such as
England, China, United States and
Africa to join the militant group
which they view as heroes. The
reports indicated that most of the
females join the group in order to
marry the fighters. However, such
views have been dampened by the
likes of Briton Samantha Lewthwaite,
dubbed the “White Widow”, who has
held her own as a terrorist. She is
on the wanted list of the Kenyan
Police after the 2013 terror attack on
the Eastgate Mall.
www.publicnewshub.com/south-african-girl-nabbed-joins-islamic-state/