💡 SPOTLIGHT

Why Tajiks are easy prey for Islamic jihadists

Tajiks are responsible for numerous Islamist terrorist attacks in recent months. Suspects in the devastating attack in Moscow also come from the Central Asian country. Open access to Russia, difficult economic conditions, and a secular dictatorship that has repressed religion at home are among the factors that contribute to the radicalization of Tajiks, writes Pavel Lokshin in German daily Die Welt.

Following the devastating attack in Moscow, several Tajiks are in custody in Russia as suspects. In early January, a suspected Tajik suicide bomber carried out an attack at the tomb of Gen. Qassem Soleimani, in the Iranian city of Kerman, killing almost 100 people. At the end of last year, Tajiks were arrested in Germany and Austria in connection with planned attacks on Cologne Cathedral and St. Stephen's Cathedral in Vienna.

According to experts, Tajiks and their family members form a minority within the Central Asian terrorist group ISIS-Khorasan (ISPK) — an offshoot of the terrorist militia of the so-called Islamic State (ISIS) — which is believed to comprise up to 6,000 fighters. A few hundred fighters are said to have sworn allegiance to the group.

But their small number cannot hide the fact: for the terrorist organization, radical Islamic Tajiks are a kind of universal weapon.

Radicals from Tajikistan are easy to mobilize in the fight against the Taliban in Afghanistan, which ISIS-Khorasan regards as nationalist renegades who have abandoned jihad. Since the Taliban rulers — who are mostly ethnic Pashtuns — are cracking down on the Tajik minority in the country, the terrorist organization can rely on solidarity movements. In Iran, which is the major Shiite enemy of the Sunni ISIS, Tajiks can communicate with the locals. Their mother tongue, Tajik, is a variety of Farsi, Iran's official language.

In addition, the Russian border is open to citizens of Tajikistan, who do not need a visa. They often have at least a basic command of the Russian language, as Russia is the largest destination for Tajik guest workers. Tajik Islamists often come to Europe as refugees — for example from Ukraine, like the men who were arrested in a nationwide raid last summer for planning an attack. [...]

— Read the full article by Pavel Lokshin for Die Welt, translated into English by Worldcrunch.

🌎 7 THINGS TO KNOW RIGHT NOW

• UN court orders Israel to allow aid into Gaza. A unanimous decision by the International Court of Justice says Israel has to act “without delay” to avert famine in Gaza. Israel denies allegations that it is blocking aid. Israeli air strikes early Friday outside of Aleppo killed more than 40. Reports said most of those killed are soldiers, including several from Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

• UN ends monitoring of North Korea’s nuclear sanctions after Russia veto.Moscow’s veto Thursday to end a monitoring panel prompts further accusations from countries, including the U.S. and South Korea, that North Korea is providing Russia with weapons to support its war in Ukraine. The panel monitors sanctionsthat started being imposed on North Korea’s nuclear missile program back in 2006.

• Tajikistan detains nine over Russian concert hall attack. Four Tajik citizens and five foreigners detained Friday are suspected of having links to the militant Islamist group that claimed responsibility for the attack near Moscow last Friday that killed 143. Tajikistan is a member of a Russian-led security bloc and hosts a Russian military base. For more, we offer this recent article in German daily Die Welt, translated by Worldcrunch.

• Disgraced crypto mogul Sam Bankman-Fried sentenced to 25 years. Convicted in November of fraud and conspiracy after the collapse of his digital currency exchange site in 2022, Bankman-Fried was sentenced Thursday in one of the biggest financial fraud cases in history that left customers, investors and lenders short of more than $11 billion.

• At least 45 people killed in a bus crash in South Africa. The bus plunged off a bridge into a ravine on Thursday, leaving one survivor, an eight-year-old girl who has been airlifted to hospital. Authorities say the driver lost control of the vehicle, causing the bus to crash through barriers and fall 164 feet before bursting into flames.

• Beyoncé releases new star-studded album Cowboy Carter. The Texan-born icon’s eighth album features collaborations with country legends Dolly Parton and Willie Nelson, and pop icons Stevie Wonder and Nile Rodgers. Cowboy Carterblends genres including blues, soul, rock, R&B, flamenco, fado, bluegrass and opera. “Texas Hold ‘Em,” the album’s first single, is already topping Country charts— a genre traditionally dominated by white males.

• Germany cools fears of “sausage dog” ban. This comes after rumors that a draft animal protection law prohibiting the breeding of certain traits that could cause “pain, suffering or damage,” might include dachshunds. The sausage-shaped pooches are known to suffer from knee, hip and back problems caused by their short legs and elongated spine. The German Kennel Club launched a petition to “save the sausage dog.”

🗞️ FRONT PAGE​​

Italian weekly news magazine Internazionale devotes its front page to the “return of ISIS,” in the wake of last week’s terrorist attack at the Crocus City Hall music venue near Moscow that killed 143. Internazionale explores how the Kremlin is blaming the tragedy — one of the worst of its kind in Russian history — on Ukraine, despite the Islamic State (ISIS) having claimed responsibility for it. *For more, read this recent analysis by France Inter’s Pierre Haski, translated from French by Worldcrunch: Moscow Attack: The Kremlin's Ukraine Narrative Won't Make ISIS Go Away.

📰 STORY OF THE DAY

Nubian queen revolt: Sudanese women fight against the use of rape as weapon of war

Violence against women, including rape, has been widespread in the war in Sudan, especially in the western region of Darfur. Now the women who led the uprising that toppled Omar al-Bashir in April 2019 are fighting to stop wartime sexual violence, reports Ahmed Salim in Egypt-based news website Al Manassa.

🇸🇩 The Sudanese Revolution, which led to the coup against former President Omar al-Bashir in April 2019, paved the way for Sudanese women, called "Kendake," to play a key role in the subsequent political movement. Kendake means "Nubian Queen" in the ancient Kush civilization. And that nickname has accompanied Sudanese women as the country's civil war has escalated.

✊ Sudanese women have become victims, political activists, rights defenders, who campaign for women, children and displaced people. They have not surrendered to the rights violations and the cycles of murder and rape that have befallen them. Rather, they have embarked on a parallel journey to save Sudanese women from violence and provide assistance to survivors and those fleeing the hell of war.

⚖️ A conference in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, concluded with a short-term plan to protect women from sexual violence during conflict and opening safe corridors for them. In the medium term, the plan calls for women to help in documenting and collecting data on human rights violations, especially those related to sexual violence.

➡️ Read more on Worldcrunch.com

📹 THIS HAPPENED VIDEO — TODAY IN HISTORY, IN ONE ICONIC PHOTO

➡️ Watch the video: THIS HAPPENED

#️⃣ BY THE NUMBERS

$12 billion

Chinese telecoms gear company Huawei Technologies reported a net profit of 87 billion yuan ($12 billion) in 2023. Doubling its profits over the previous year, the tech giant was boosted by its cloud and digital businesses thriving in spite of U.S. sanctions.

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📣 VERBATIM

“We have to mentally get used to the arrival of a new era. The pre-war era.”

— “I don't want to scare anyone, but war is no longer a concept from the past,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said in his first interview with the international press. “It's real and it started over two years ago,” he argued, stating that Europe needs to become more self-sufficient militarily in order to ally with the U.S. for the upcoming war era.

📸 PHOTO DU JOUR

Russia's Minister of Natural Resources Alexander Kozlov and a North Korean delegation led by Foreign Trade Minister Yun Jong-ho near the Kremlin on Friday, after Russia used its veto at the UN to end sanction controls on Pyongyang. — Photo: Alexander Ryumin/TASS/ZUMA

👉  MORE FROM WORLDCRUNCH  

• Israeli Hostages In Gaza: What Their Relatives Think Of A Ceasefire Deal — WORLDCRUNCH

• TikTok Fears Over China Miss The Real Danger: All Social Media — FRANCE INTER

• As Colombia Debates "Conversion Therapy" Ban, One Gay Man Shares His Story Of Survival — EL ESPECTADOR

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