The Sahel region of Africa stretches across several countries including Mali, Niger, Chad, and Burkina Faso. Islamic militants have been growing in strength in this region. Most of these militants are Salafist that seeks to emulate the lifestyle and practices of the earliest generations of Muslims. There is also a strong nationalist ideology for many of these groups, seeking to remove outsiders and move to a pre-colonial state of leadership.
Major Players
The Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) – An Islamist extremist group that emerged in 2015 as an offshoot of Al-Mourabitoun, which was led by the Algerian militant Mokhtar Belmokhtar. The ISGS has been responsible for several high-profile attacks in the region, including the ambush of a joint U.S.-Niger patrol in 2017 that killed four American soldiers. The ISGS is believed to have several hundred fighters and operates mainly in Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso. The group has been able to exploit the weak governance, porous borders, and ethnic tensions in the region to establish a presence in remote areas. The ISGS has also been involved in criminal activities, such as smuggling and kidnapping for ransom, to fund its operations. The group has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State (ISIS) and has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and several other countries. The ISGS is seen as a threat to regional stability and efforts to combat it have been hampered by the vast and inhospitable terrain of the Sahel, as well as the lack of resources and coordination among the countries in the region.
Boko Haram – A jihadist group based in northeastern Nigeria that seeks to establish an Islamic state. The group was founded in 2002 and gained prominence in 2009 when it launched an insurgency against the Nigerian government. Boko Haram has been responsible for numerous attacks on civilians, including bombings, kidnappings, and mass shootings, as well as attacks on military and government targets. The group has also been known to carry out attacks in neighboring countries, such as Cameroon, Chad, and Niger. Boko Haram has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States, the United Kingdom, and the United Nations.
Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM) – A jihadist group formed in March 2017 through a merger of four existing jihadist groups: Al-Mourabitoun, Ansar Dine, the Macina Liberation Front, and the Saharan branch of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM). JNIM is aligned with Al-Qaeda and seeks to establish an Islamic state in the Sahel region. The group has carried out numerous attacks on civilians and military targets in Mali, Burkina Faso, and Niger. JNIM is believed to have several thousand fighters and has been designated as a terrorist organization by the United States and several other countries.
The rise of these groups in the Sahel has led to increased security concerns for the countries in the region, as well as for neighboring countries and the international community. Governments in the region have been working to counter the influence of Salafist groups and prevent further destabilization of the region. However, the complex nature of the conflicts in the Sahel and the resilience of these groups have made this a challenging task.