Algeria listed among most reliable countries thwarting recruitment of radical elements within terrorist groups

According to a new fact-finding United Nations report issued of late and devoted to the counter-terrorism struggle at the international level, Algeria has been referred to as one of the most reliable and efficient counties in thwarting recruitment of radicalized elements within the ranks of terrorist groups worldwide.

More than 25,000 foreigners are fighting alongside “al Qaeda” and the “Islamic State” terrorist organizations.

According to a new United Nations report, more than 25,000 people from more than 100 nations have left their homes to join the fight in Iraq, Syria and other countries. Between mid-2014 and March 2015, the number of foreign terrorist fighters worldwide increased by 71 percent.

Over the past three years, the problem of foreign fighters leaving home to join terrorist groups has noticeably increased. The flow of these new fighters “is higher than it has ever been historically,” the report said, which was used at a Wednesday panel of U.N. experts monitoring sanctions against al Qaeda.

A majority of the fighters (roughly 20,000) have gone to Iraq and Syria to flight for the “Islamic State” extremist group, though the Al-Nusra front has gained more foreign fighters as well, the report said.

According to the panel, thousands of foreign fighters who have traveled to Iraq and Syria are living and working in “a genuine ‘international finishing school’ for extremists.”

Afghan security forces estimate about 6,500 foreign fighters are active in their country, along with hundreds of fighters in Yemen, Libya and Pakistan, around 100 in Somalia and others in both the Sahel countries in northern Africa and the Philippines.

The panel cited the “high number” of foreign fighters from Tunisia, Morocco, France and Russia and an increase in fighters from the Maldives, Finland and Trinidad and Tobago. Some countries in sub-Saharan Africa are also producing first-time radical fighters, the panel said.

The armed extremists  and their networks “pose an immediate and long-term threat” and “an urgent global security problem,” the panel said — one that lacks an easy solution and needs to be tackled on many fronts.

With globalized travel, the chance of a person from any country becoming a victim of a foreign terrorist attack “is growing, particularly with attacks targeting hotels, public spaces and venues,” the UN panel said.

The most effective way to stop foreign extremist fighters? Preventing radicalization, recruitment and travel of them.

The issue now is that less than 10 percent of basic information about foreign “Jihadist” fighters has been put into global systems — a clear call for greater intelligence sharing.

The response to foreign extremist fighters and terrorism needs to be “measured, effective and proportionate”, says the United Nations fact-finding report.”