Government reveals ISIS’ new recruitment strategy

The Federal Government has urged parents and guardians to monitor the activities of their children and wards in order to prevent them from being recruited by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

It said that the terrorist organisation was now targeting vulnerable individuals, including foreign students, using financial inducements to recruit them into the terrorist organisation.

The Minister of Information and Culture, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, cited the recent recruitment into ISIS of 27 medical students of the University of Medical Sciences and Technology (UMST), Sudan, as an example of the new strategy being used by the organisation to recruit more members.

The minister, quoting a report received by the Nigerian Intelligence Community, said 22 of the 27 students, who travelled to Syria to join ISIS, are Britons.

According to the report, one Mohammed Fakhri Al-khabbas recruited the students, as doctors in the UK. Their social media accounts also revealed them as “praising Jihadists and championing ISIS’ cause,’’ he said.

The minister therefore, appealed to Nigerians, especially those who have children and wards in foreign academic institutions, to pay more attention to their activities, while urging schools across the country to enlighten their students on the new ISIS’ recruitment strategy.