Wilayat Wasat Ifriqiya Claims Its First Attack in Tanzania

For an archive of other backgrounders click here.

Below you will find details I have been tracking on extremism and militancy in Tanzania or related to Tanzanians involved in jihadism prior to yesterday’s first claim by IS of an attack in Tanzania. If anyone wants to add anything to the following dossier let me know and I will post it so there is a fuller picture. From oldest to most recent.

July 11, 2014:

Threat of Al-Shabaab and Extremist Attacks Grows in Tanzania

February 21, 2015:

Tanzania on security alert after police attacked

April 15, 2015:

Tanzanians lynch suspected Somali militant, police arrest 10 others

April 20, 2015:

Analysis: Tanzania’s Arrest of Militants Highlights an Ongoing Jihadist Threat

April 30, 2015:

Man arrested in Tanzania may be Islamist rebel leader

May 3, 2015:

5 injured in hand grenade blast in Tanzania’s Morogoro region

May 18, 2016:

Tanzanian militants send another message to their relatives | Ahl Kahf

May 9, 2017:

Tanzanian bank FBME shut down over US terror funding charges

May 15, 2017 :

SA passports to terror: Newly minted documents show courier’s links to ‘White Widow’, al-Shabab

March 19, 2018:

Two Mombasa men arrested headed to Somalia to join Al-Shabaab

May 24, 2018:

AU Confirms ISIS Infiltration In Countries

October 20, 2018:

Tanzania arrests 104 people for plotting ‘radical camps’ in Mozambique

October 25, 2018:

Tanzania Stops Suspected Militants Flocking to North Mozambique

December 27, 2018:

Autoridades moçambicanas detêm dois estrangeiros ligados aos ataques em Cabo Delgado

December 31, 2018:

South African, Tanzanians among suspected jihadist leaders in Mozambique

January 2, 2019:

SA man accused of terror-related activities in Mozambique to appear in court

January 14, 2019:

‘Foreign jihadists’ among dozens killed in southern Somalia

January 30, 2019:

3 Tanzanians jailed in Wajir over terror links 

July 31, 2019:

The eastern DRC’s most active rebel group just got a bit more dangerous

November 13, 2019:

Tanzania says gunmen kill six in ambush near Mozambique border

November 19, 2019:

A Salafi-jihadi Insurgency Could Spread to Tanzania

January 28, 2020:

Magufuli’s Reign and Tanzania’s Creeping Radicalization Issue

August 11, 2020:

TPDF to launch a manhunt along the border with Mozambique

September 4, 2020:

Aboud Rogo’s followers unleash terror in Mozambique

October 2, 2020:

Infographic: The news of the harvest of soldiers in Central Africa during the year from the month of Safar 1441 AH until Safar 1442 AH

October 15, 2020:

The Soldiers of the Caliphate attacked Barracks of the Tanzanian Crusader Army in the Village of Kitiya in the Area of Mtwara yesterday, where clashes took place with various types of weapons, which led to the death and injury of a number of elements and a tank was burned, and the Mujahidin seized various weapons and ammunition