New African gangs have emerged in Adelaide, with rival groups of machete-wielding teenage thugs allegedly targeting each other in a spate of tit-for-tat attacks in recent weeks.
South Australia Police said rising tensions had resulted in “members attending opposing street gang homes and causing substantial property damage, assaults and aggravated affrays across metropolitan Adelaide”.
Last week seven males aged 15 to 24 were arrested and charged over alleged attacks in Salisbury Park, Brahma Lodge, Salisbury East and Rostrevor, while weapons including baseball bats, knives, machetes, an axe, a hammer and a baton were seized. Three were immediately granted bail.
Assistant Commissioner John De Candia indicated Adelaide’s main two African gangs, Killa Block Squad (KBS) and 051, had been “weakened”, resulting in new groups emerging, and said that the conflict was primary the result of a member switching allegiances, The Advertiser reported.
“The main reason has been the one person moving from one street gang to another,” he said.
“That person has given the addresses (of his previous gang) to his new friends – and that’s why they’ve targeted those addresses causing some damage.
“We certainly do not tolerate any of this tit-for-tat between any of these rival gangs.”
He said the new gangs were using postcodes or area names to distinguish themselves, but said police did not know exactly how many there were.
Opposition police spokesman Jack Batty said violent criminals were “making a mockery of the justice system” by committing more offences as soon as they were released on bail, and said the Labor government needed to keep offenders behind bars.
“It’s the last thing we need, is South Australia turning into some sort of gangster’s paradise,” he told 7 News.
“We can’t have people accused of serious violence, in gangs, running rampant on our streets and constantly breaking their bail.”
The conflict between the warring KBS and 051 gangs – both mainly comprised of South Sudanese youths, but also have members from Somalia, Liberia, and other African countries – has been ongoing for years.
In a trend also seen in Melbourne, Sydney and in the UK, both gangs are also linked to drill rap groups who members pose with machetes and perform songs about stabbings and shootings.
South Australia Police in 2021 started Operation Meld, a special taskforce to combat African gang violence, but in February merged it with Operation Mandrake (set up to target aboriginal youth crime), to form the Youth and Street Gangs Task Force.
Header image: Left, an African youth with a 051 necklace being arrested. Right, an African youth poses with a machete in Adelaide (Instagram).
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