Jihadists exporting terrorism from Sahel Africa to coasts

Sopuruchi Onwuka

Violent and extremist jihadist groups linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State Terrorism are successfully exporting organized crime from Sahel region to West Africa’s coastal countries, indicating a wider threat to the continent as whole.

The United Nations also called on its Security Council comprising most powerful countries in the world to pursue financing regionally led police operations in West Africa, ad supporting millions of vulnerable people in Nigeria, Niger, Burkina Faso and Mali.

Secretary-General Antonio Guterres stated in a new report on the Sahel and West Africa that 25.8 million people in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and Nigeria need humanitarian assistance this year. He added that the four countries have more than 6.2 million people internally displaced and 630,000 refugees in April.

 In addition, 32.9 million people faced food insecurity, he pointed out.

The UN scribe called for “accelerated implementation” of remaining security agreements, including recent plans for a counterterrorism center in Nigeria and the deployment of an ECOWAS standby force to help eradicate terrorism.

Guterres said humanitarian agencies lack adequate funding, having received only 13% of the $3.2 billion needed for 2024. “Without additional funding, millions of vulnerable people will be left without vital support,” he said in the report.

Guterres stated in the report that hundreds of people, mainly civilians, have been killed in the first half of 2024 alone in terrorist attacks.

The vast majority of deaths occurred in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, whose ruling military juntas have cut ties with the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

The region’s deadliest terrorist attacks this year took place in Burkina Faso, where the militant jihadist groups Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin, which has ties to al-Qaida, and the Islamic State claim “extensive swaths” of territory, Guterres said in the report.

In February alone, major terrorist attacks killed 301 people, including a single assault that claimed 170 lives.

According to the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, there were 361 conflict-related deaths in Niger during the first three months of 2024, a significant increase from 250 over the same period last year.

The three military regimes doubled down on their decision to leave ECOWAS, following the creation of their own security partnership, the Alliance of Sahel States, in September.

The three Sahel countries had in March announced a Russia-backed joint security force to fight terrorism. The new military governments denounced by ECOWAS for scuttling democracy in the region are relying on Russian support for their joint force to begin operations.

They have already severed their military cooperation with France and the United States and aligned with Russia on its security challenges.

U.N. special representative for the Sahel and West Africa, Leonardo Simão, called attention to linked vices fueling insecurity in the region, stressing that more police efforts would now be required to rampant illegal trafficking in the Sahel with focus on combating terrorism.

Leonardo Simão noted in his briefing to the U.N. Security Council that “it’s drugs, it’s weapons, it’s human beings, it’s mineral resources, and even food,”  that fuel terrorist activities in the region.

Simão did not comment on the countries’ international alliances, but said their withdrawals from ECOWAS will be “harmful to both sides.” He lauded ECOWAS for taking a’ “vigorous approach” to engaging with Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger and urged the countries to maintain regional unity.

He called for the U.N.’s continued support of the Accra Initiative, a military platform involving Burkina Faso and nearby coastal countries to contain the spread of extremism in the Sahel.

But the ambassadors of United States and Russia sharply differed on the ways to achieve stability in the Sahel where Russia is seeking to replace western countries that have fallen out of cooperation with new ruling juntas.

U.S. Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield expressed support for ECOWAS and U.N. efforts in West Africa and the Sahel and urged the Security Council step up.

She called for increased funding and the appointment of a U.N. resident coordinator in the region, saying a U.N. presence is critical to support U.N. development efforts “as well as ensuring the delivery of much needed humanitarian assistance.”

In taking a different view, Russia’s deputy ambassador, Anna Evstigneeva, countered that international security efforts amount to an “attempt to continue imposing new colonial models” on Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. She accused Western donors of limiting assistance for “political reasons.”

“Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger are conducting an uncompromising and coordinated fight against terrorist groups and they are achieving success and stabilizing their territories,” Evstigneeva said.

The Oracle Today reports that the military juntas of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger have ended long-standing foreign military partnerships with Western nations, including France which withdrew its troops from Mali and Niger after democratically elected regimes in the countries failed.

The U.N. ended its 10-year peacekeeping mission in Mali in December 2023 at the junta’s insistence. It had been the deadliest U.N. peacekeeping mission, with more than 300 personnel killed.

The U.S. military is set to conclude its withdrawal from Niger, also at the junta’s request, by Sept. 15.

Guterres said regional insecurity continues to impact negatively on the humanitarian and human rights situation in the region.