UN warns that Covid-19 pandemic provides new opportunities for terror groups and creates challenges to counter-terrorism activities
FILE PHOTO: United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres attends a session of the Human Rights Council at the United Nations in Geneva, Switzerland, February 24, 2020. provides new opportunities for the Daesh terrorist group, Al Qaeda and their affiliates as well as neo-Nazis, white supremacists and hate groups.
“It is true that, in some places, the crisis has led to a reduction of terrorist activity, mainly due to the mobilization of state security services,” he said. “But in other regions, terrorism and human suffering caused by it continue unabated.” Tunisia’s UN Ambassador Kais Kabtani, who chairs the UN Security Council’s counter-terrorism committee, said its recent report on Covid-19 described how the pandemic may have temporarily limited operations of terrorist groups because of lockdowns and travel restrictions, but also how groups including the Daesh are exploiting increased social isolation and online use “to spread their propaganda through virtual platforms.
“The increase in the number of young people engaging in unsupervised Internet usage, particularly on gaming platforms, offers terrorist groups an opportunity to expose a greater number of people to their ideas, although the relationship between online activity and radicalization to violence is not fully understood,” the experts' report said.
Malaysia Latest News, Malaysia Headlines
Similar News:You can also read news stories similar to this one that we have collected from other news sources.
China moves to kick its exotic meat habit after COVID-19As the world struggles to contain the coronavirus pandemic, China is clamping down on the sale of wildlife for human consumption amid concerns about another outbreak of a zoonotic disease.
Read more »
As Florida sets records for Covid-19 cases, health authorities often fail to do contact tracingDespite claims that Florida traces every case of Covid-19, a CNN investigation found that health authorities in Florida, now the nation's No. 1 hotspot for the virus, often fail to do contact tracing, long considered a key tool in containing an outbreak.
Read more »
Australia closes state border for first time in 100 years after COVID-19 spikeThe border between Australia's two most populous states will close from Tuesday for an indefinite period as authorities scramble to contain an outbreak of the coronavirus in the city of Melbourne.
Read more »
Geberit sales fall on Covid-19, currency impactGeberit AG said Monday that its sales fell in the first half of the year due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic and negative currency effects. The Swiss sanitary-products company said first-half sales dropped 9.8%. Adjusted for currency effects, sales fell 4.5%. "In the second quarter in particular, restrictions enforced due to COVID-19 resulted in a significant decline in sales in the individual markets," it said.
Read more »