UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has warned that the Covid-19 pandemic provides new opportunities for the Islamic State extremist group, al-Qaeda and their affiliates as well as neo-Nazis, white supremacists and hate groups.

AP reported that the UN chief said it is too early to fully assess the implications of the coronavirus pandemic on terrorism, but all these groups seek to exploit divisions, local conflicts, failures in governing, and other grievances to advance their aims.

UN experts said a wide variety of terrorist groups have already integrated Covid-19 into their propaganda to exploit divisions and weaknesses among their enemies including by intensifying hatred for certain groups, resulting in racist, anti-Semitic, Islamophobic and anti-immigrant hate speech.