In an interview with AFP, Viktor Yermolaev, head of a paramilitary unit known as Medvedi (Bears) in Russia and the Bear Brigade in the West, said many of his fighters had left the West African country while some stayed behind.

Ukraine earlier this month launched the unprecedented incursion into Russia’s western Kursk region, adding a new factor to the over two-year war that began in February 2022 with Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor.

The Bear Brigade is one of several such mercenary groups that emerged in recent years alongside the now defunct Wagner Group of the late Yevgeny Prigozhin and Western analysts say are closely linked to the Russian state.

“We thought Ukrainians wanted to end this war and sit down at the negotiating table, but after their entry into the Kursk region we see that they chose the path of war, and war is our job,” said Yermolaev, who is also known by his call sign Jedi.

“There is no higher honour for a Russian warrior than to defend his homeland. This is the way,” added Yermolaev, who said he had served in Russia’s airborne troops for 15 years.

He said he was now in Russia but declined to provide further details or say how many fighters had been pulled out.

The unit’s Telegram channel said earlier this week that “due to recent events” the unit was returning to Crimea, the Ukrainian Black Sea peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014, where it is based.

A Western security source told AFP that around a hundred fighters of the paramilitary unit had left Burkina Faso.

Western intelligence believes that the fighters have been tasked in particular with providing security for the country’s junta leader Ibrahim Traore who took power in 2022.

A succession of coups in francophone western Africa — in Mali in 2021, Burkina Faso in 2022, and Niger in 2023 — have led to a drastic increase in Russia’s influence as Russian mercenaries were called in to prop up new regimes.

Coup leaders in Burkina Faso expelled troops and diplomats from former colonial ruler France and turned to Russia for military assistance.

‘Limited Impact on the Ground’

Yermolaev declined to discuss their operations in Burkina Faso, but said there were around 300 Bear Brigade fighters in the African country before the Kursk incursion.

“Some are remaining of course, we have bases and property, equipment and ammunition, we’re not taking all that to Russia.”

One picture circulating on social media shows Yermolaev, shaven-headed and with a salt-and-pepper beard, smiling and clasping Traore’s hand. Yermolaev told AFP the picture was recent, saying he “stopped by to say goodbye” to Traore.

In June, an African diplomatic source told AFP that “two rotations of planes carrying Russian instructors” had arrived in the country from neighboring Mali.

The term is generally used to describe Russian mercenaries operating in Africa.

Yermolaev claimed his group was independent of the Russian defense ministry. “But we always help them when they come to us,” he added.

Jack Margolin, an independent expert on private military companies, said the group’s exit would unlikely impact the battlefield in the African country.

“Bears have had limited impact on the ground in Burkina Faso, mainly focused on training and security for political leadership. They haven’t taken on the level of risk that Wagner units have in places like Mali,” Margolin, who is based in Washington DC, told AFP on Friday.

“Bears are just one part of how the Russian military has deployed to Burkina Faso, and it’s likely that Russia will maintain a presence through other units – whether more formal, or others like Bears,” he added.

Lou Osborn of the All Eyes on Wagner monitor described the unit as a “group of volunteers” whose members had signed a contract with Russia’s GRU military intelligence service.

Wagner, Russia’s most notorious mercenary group, was disbanded and reorganized following the death of its leader Prigozhin in a mysterious plane crash last year following an aborted mutiny.

Russian security operations in Africa are now coordinated through an umbrella group known as the Africa Corps.

The post Russian Mercenaries Pulled Out of Burkina Faso to Defend Kursk: Commander appeared first on The Defense Post.

Jihadist rebels affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group have waged a grinding insurgency since 2015 in Burkina Faso that has killed thousands and displaced two million people.

The latest attack was carried out by armed men in the village of Barsalogho in north-central Burkina Faso on Saturday, multiple sources said.

Denouncing the “cowardly and barbaric attack,” Communications Minister Rimtalba Jean Emmanuel Ouedraogo said it was carried out by “hordes of criminals.”

The assailants targeted “women, children, elderly, men, making no distinction,” Ouedraogo said on national television.

A local resident told AFP by phone that the assault happened around 9:00 am on Saturday, when “terrorist groups attacked the village, killing numerous civilians and security personnel.”

A security source who asked not to be named said there were “several dozen dead,” including civilians and security forces.

Most of the “numerous wounded” were taken to a hospital in the regional capital of Kaya, some 45 kilometers (28 miles) away, the source added.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

According to another local resident, the victims were mainly “young civilians, who came out in large numbers to help the soldiers dig trenches around the town, to protect themselves from possible attacks by armed terrorist groups.”

A second security source said that “the response of the soldiers” and auxiliary troops “made it possible to neutralise several terrorists and avoid a greater tragedy.”

According to a hospital source in Kaya, more than 100 wounded people were taken to the city’s largest medical center.

The chief of the center called on all personnel to come in to deal with the “emergency linked to a massive influx of patients since the morning of (Saturday) August 24,” according to an internal note seen by AFP.

Security Minister Mahamadou Sana said civilians were killed in the attack, despite “a response and air support.”

Soldiers and members of a civilian force that supports the military — Volunteers for the Defence of the Fatherland (VDP) — were also killed according to Sana.

After taking power in a putsch in September 2022, Burkina’s coup leaders expelled troops and diplomats from former colonial ruler France, and have turned to Russia for military assistance.

The post Dozens Killed in Attack in Burkina Faso: Sources appeared first on The Defense Post.

Benin, which only recorded its first incident of extremist violence in 2019, is among the continent’s countries being increasingly impacted by terrorism. The number of recorded attacks has risen year-on-year since, reaching 20 incidents in 2022 before doubling last year. The Beninese military labeled 2023’s drastic uptick as “the sharpest rise in extremist attacks in Africa.”

An overwhelming share of this activity has occurred in the Park W-Arly-Pendjari Complex, a vast 1.7 million hectares (4.2 million acres) of land that makes up West Africa’s largest protected wilderness.

The sheer size of this area, alongside its location on the periphery of one of the world’s most violent regions, means Benin has struggled to halt the growing presence of Jama’at Nasr al-Islam wal Muslimin (JNIM), and to a lesser extent Islamic State-Sahel.

Kidnappings in Benin

Evidence of JNIM’s growing presence in Benin is also visible in the country’s increasing rate of kidnappings.

Last year saw northern Benin record at least 75 kidnapping (or attempted kidnapping) incidents, just over triple the number recorded in 2022, which itself witnessed a total higher than the combined number of recorded cases nationwide between 2016 and 2021.

The implications are grave, with kidnappings serving as one of the initial tactics violent extremist organizations frequently deploy to assert presence. Indeed, both JNIM and Islamic State-Sahel typically begin their encroachment into fresh territory by forging alliances with local actors. However, for those less willing to cooperate, methods designed to coerce and intimidate, such as kidnappings, will be used.

This is because they can provide much-needed intel on the local terrain, strike fear into local communities, and announce the presence of an extremist organization as a legitimate violent actor, as well as an additional source of income.

Perhaps most importantly, kidnappings help gradually erode the belief that the state is the primary security provider.

Pre-Existing Grievances

JNIM has found success in northern Benin over recent years, but this says as much about the group’s capabilities as it does about some of the Beninese government policies. JNIM’s expansion would have been far more difficult without the pre-existing grievances in the W-Arly-Pendjari Complex and surrounding areas.

A series of land reforms and sedentarization laws aimed at modernizing its agro-pastoral industry and conserving the local ecosystem, as well as the closure of the Park Complex to the public after two French tourists were kidnapped several years ago, have all been accused of exacerbating farmer and pastoral grievances and conflicts.

JNIM has been able to leverage some of these frustrations to expand deeper into the Park Complex, in turn allowing it to become an increasingly dominant actor in Benin.

Underscoring this notion is a recent study carried out in the Atakora Department, which houses the Pendjari National Park and the largest section of Benin’s border with Burkina Faso. Fieldwork found that 20 percent of participants personally knew someone who had joined JNIM, while 45 percent reported seeing JNIM in their community, and 30 percent had personally interacted with JNIM militants.

Benin now finds itself at a crossroads, although there are several steps the country should take to try to tackle the growing threat posed by violent extremist organizations in its territory.

Address Socio-Economic Pressures

In the Park W-Arly-Pendjari Complex, the government should better address the socio-economic pressures facing farmer and pastoralist communities, even if it comes at a slight environmental cost.

This can be done by declassifying segments of the park’s buffer zones for these communities to use, which would likely alleviate overall levels of conflict and competition.

While this could be a short-term solution, a comprehensive strategy aimed at providing sustainable economic opportunities to the affected areas in northern Benin should also be considered.

Military Cooperation With Neighbors

Benin must also increase military cooperation with Burkina Faso and Niger, the latter of whom the country is currently embroiled in a lengthy diplomatic spat with. With their relationship fraught and Niger facing its own issues with violent extremist organizations, Niamey is unlikely to prioritize terrorist activity near its border with Benin.

This fallout does not only rule out military assistance and cooperation, it has also meant that Niger has kept its side of the border closed for almost a year now. Until reopened, local communities in northern Benin that once relied on cross-border trade will continue to be negatively impacted, further creating socio-economic conditions that are conducive to violent extremists.

While facing its own extensive issues with extremism, Nigeria will be concerned that JNIM militants from the Sahel have transited through Benin and settled in the western Kainji Lake National Park. The threat here is relatively nascent compared to elsewhere in Nigeria, meaning Abuja potentially has a window of opportunity to combat JNIM before it morphs into a far larger threat.

To do so, it will need to cooperate intensely with Benin, and even shoulder more of the burden in attempting to tackle this cross-border threat. Indeed, there is evidence that bandits from Nigeria are now crossing into JNIM-held zones in Benin, underscoring how failing to address this issue will benefit extremist groups traditionally found on opposite sides of the shared border.

Nigeria has ample experience combatting such groups, even if its success in doing so is limited, meaning it must share its experience and knowledge with Benin to implement an effective counter-terrorism strategy that can address all facets of the insecurity multiplying across their shared border.

Western Community Should Help

Finally, the Western community should play a more proactive role in helping Benin.

This should be done via a mixture of civilian and military initiatives. While improving the capacities and size of the Beninese security apparatus will be helpful in fighting extremist groups, providing an outlet for disenfranchised members to leave their groups will be equally productive in the long run.

The US and EU should set up and sponsor disarmament, demobilization, and reintegration programs immediately, as they do elsewhere in the region.

The fate of Benin remains unclear, although it is evident that if trends of the past few years are allowed to progress at their current rates, the country will likely suffer a similar fate as some of its West African peers — many of whom contain some of the highest levels of terrorism and violence in the world.

Charlie Werb is an analyst, writer, and commentator focussing on sub-Saharan African security issues, with a particular emphasis on Islamist extremist groups in the region.

The views and opinions expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the editorial position of The Defense Post.

The Defense Post aims to publish a wide range of high-quality opinion and analysis from a diverse array of people – do you want to send us yours? Click here to submit an op-ed.

The post Benin at Crossroads: Urgent Measures Needed to Combat Rising Terrorism appeared first on The Defense Post.

“On Monday July 22, a unit of the defense and security forces exchanged fire with armed terrorist groups along the Bankilare-Tera route near the village of Foneko,” it said in a communique read on state television, announcing a “preliminary toll” of 15 dead.

The ministry also said three soldiers were missing, with 16 injured and hospitalized, adding that 21 “terrorists” had been killed in the clashes in the western region of Tillaberi.

The ministry went on to say the “prompt intervention of reinforcements from Tera” had forced the armed groups to retreat to the north.

The attack came almost exactly a year after a military coup which the army justified by the country’s deteriorating security situation.

Twelve months on, armed groups notably from Islamic State and others loyal to Al-Qaeda, have continued to carry out attacks in the Tillaberi region, with bloody clashes over recent weeks leaving dozens dead on both sides.

Despite a large-scale rollout of troops and a junta promise to quadruple military numbers by 2030, civilians have also not been spared by the unrest — though victim tolls remain imprecise amid scant independent data.

Tera is an intersection point for the thousands of cargo trucks arriving each month from the port of Lome, in Togo, via northern Burkina Faso. The lorries are escorted by troops from both neighboring states.

Four weeks ago, 20 soldiers and one civilian were killed in the same region in an attack by armed groups. The army said it had killed “more than 100 terrorists” in response.

Earlier this month, seven civilians were killed in the nearby village of Dosso Kouregou.

Niger is also having to contend with violence in its southeast from Boko Haram and Islamic State’s West African offshoot.

Military leader General Abdourahamane Tiani meanwhile has declared Friday an official holiday to mark a year since the overthrow of elected President Mohamed Bazoum.

Since taking over, the junta has totally reset its international partnerships, asking former colonial power France late last year to withdraw its troops that had been combatting jihadist groups in the Sahel nation.

By mid-September, a US contingent is also due to pull out of an important drone base at Agadez in the north.

Instead, Niamey has been fostering closer links to Iran, Turkey, and Russia.

Russia notably sent military instructors to Niger in April and May.

On a regional level, Niger has engaged in rapprochement with Burkina Faso and Mali, likewise ruled by military juntas after recent coups.

The post Niger Says at Least 15 Soldiers Killed Near Burkina Border appeared first on The Defense Post.

A coalition of armed groups killed 20 troops and one civilian in the region of Tera in jihadist-plagued western Niger on June 25, the army said.

“More than 100 terrorists have been killed since,” the army said in its latest bulletin, adding its operations were ongoing.

The army had said in its previous bulletin that it had killed around 30 “terrorists” in the region the day after the Tera attack and had “destroyed their means of war” in an air raid.

Tera lies in the Tillaberi region bordering Mali and Burkina Faso where rebels linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group have waged a bloody insurgency for almost a decade.

Civilians are frequently targeted in the area by jihadists, prompting many people to flee their homes.

Freight trucks from Niger also pass through Tera, arriving every month from the Togolese port of Lome, via northern Burkina Faso.

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“A coalition of terrorist armed groups” attacked security forces near the village of Tassia, leaving “21 martyrs including one civilian” and nine injured, the ministry announced in a statement on national television.

It said “several dozen” of the assailants were killed and that aerial and ground reinforcements were being deployed to track down the rest of the attackers.

Three days of national mourning will begin from Wednesday with flags lowered to half-mast, the ministry said, speaking of the security forces’ “unshakeable determination” to “continue this fight for sovereignty.”

Tassia lies in the Tillaberi region bordering Mali and Burkina Faso, where rebels linked to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group have waged a bloody insurgency for almost a decade.

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Burkinabe officials contacted by AFP did not comment on the allegation, which the New York-based group described as “among the worst army abuse in Burkina Faso since 2015.”

“These mass killings… appear to be part of a widespread military campaign against civilians accused of collaborating with Islamist armed groups, and may amount to crimes against humanity.”

It said: “Soldiers killed 44 people, including 20 children, in Nondin village, and 179 people, including 36 children, in the nearby Soro village, of Thiou district in the northern Yatenga province.”

The West African nation has been battered by a jihadist insurgency that swept in from neighboring Mali in 2015.

Thousands of civilians, troops, and police have been killed, two million people have fled their homes, and anger within the military at the mounting toll sparked two coups in 2022.

“The massacres in Nondin and Soro villages are just the latest mass killings of civilians by the Burkina Faso military in their counterinsurgency operations,” said Tirana Hassan, executive director of Human Rights Watch.

“The repeated failure of the Burkinabe authorities to prevent and investigate such atrocities underlines why international assistance is critical to support a credible investigation into possible crimes against humanity,” Hassan said.

HRW said it had interviewed 23 people, including 14 witnesses to the killings, three local civil society activists, and three members of international organizations.

“Human Rights Watch verified videos and photographs shared by survivors of the aftermath of the killings and injured survivors,” it said.

Mass Graves

On February 24 and 25, Islamist armed groups carried out several attacks on military targets, including barracks and bases, and on civilian infrastructure, such as religious sites, killing scores of civilians, soldiers, and militia members.

Burkinabe Defense Minister Mahamoudou Sana on February 26 denounced “simultaneous and coordinated” attacks by Islamist fighters but made no mention of the mass killings of civilians in Nondin and Soro.

On March 1, Aly Benjamin Coulibaly, prosecutor of the high court Ouahigouya, the capital of Yatenga province, said he had received reports of “massive deadly attacks” on the villages of Komsilga, Nodin, and Soro in Yatenga province with a provisional toll of “around 170 people executed” and others injured, and that he ordered an investigation.

Coulibaly said villagers had recounted that “military forces first stopped in Nondin, then in Soro, five kilometers (three miles) away.”

“They believe that the killings were perpetrated in retaliation for an attack by Islamist fighters against a Burkinabe military and militia camp outside… Ouahigouya, about 25 kilometres from Nondin, earlier that day,” he said.

“Before the soldiers started shooting at us, they accused us of being complicit with the jihadists,” a male survivor from Soro who was shot in the leg said.

“They said we do not cooperate with them (the army) because we did not inform them about the jihadists’ movements.”

Witnesses said that survivors and people from nearby villages buried the bodies in Nondin in three mass graves.

The post HRW Says Burkina Army Killed 223 Villagers in Revenge Attacks appeared first on The Defense Post.

The new force “will be operational as soon as possible to take into account the security challenges in our space,” Niger’s army chief Moussa Salaou Barmou said in a statement following talks in Niamey.

“We are convinced that, with the combined efforts of our three countries, we will manage to create the conditions for a shared security,” he added.

The size of the joint force was unspecified, but Barmou said the three armies had agreed to develop an “operational concept” that would allow them to reach their defense and security objectives.

The announcement is the latest bringing closer the three neighbors, who have severed ties with former colonial ruler and traditional security ally France in favor of Russia.

Last year, they joined diplomatic forces in an Alliance of Sahel States with a view to creating a federation and in January announced their intention to withdraw from regional bloc the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS).

ECOWAS had imposed sanctions on all three countries for overthrowing democratically elected governments in a succession of coups since 2020.

Anger at civilian governments for failing to stem the violence meted out by jihadist rebels affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group played a large role in the military takeovers.

A jihadist revolt broke out in northern Mali in 2012 before spreading to neighboring Niger and Burkina Faso in 2015.

The spiraling violence is estimated to have killed thousands and displaced millions across the region.

The post Niger, Mali, Burkina Creating Joint Anti-Jihadist Force appeared first on The Defense Post.

On that same day, February 25, separate attacks on a mosque in eastern Burkina and a Catholic church in the north left dozens more dead.

Aly Benjamin Coulibaly said he had received reports of the attacks on the villages of Komsilga, Nodin, and Soroe in Yatenga province on February 25, with a provisional toll of “around 170 people executed.”

The attacks left others wounded and caused material damage, the prosecutor for the northern town of Ouahigouya added in a statement, without apportioning blame to any group.

He said his office ordered an investigation and appealed to the public for information.

Survivors of the attacks told AFP that dozens of women and young children were among the victims.

Local security sources said the attacks were separate from deadly incidents that happened on the same day at a mosque in the rural community of Natiaboani and a church in the village of Essakane.

Authorities have yet to release an official death toll for those attacks but a senior church official said at the time that at least 15 civilians were killed in that attack.

Burkina Faso has been grappling with a jihadist insurgency waged by rebels affiliated with Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State group that spilled over from neighboring Mali in 2015.

The violence has killed almost 20,000 people and displaced more than two million in Burkina Faso, one of the world’s poorest countries situated in the Sahel, a region wracked by instability.

Anger at the state’s inability to end the insecurity played a major role in two military coups in 2022. Current strongman Ibrahim Traore has made the fight against rebel groups a priority.

‘Co-Ordinated’ Attacks

There were a number of attacks on February 25, notably against a military detachment in Tankoualou in the east, a rapid response battalion in Kongoussi in the north, and soldiers in the northern region of Ouahigouya.

In response, the army and members of the Volunteers for the Defence of the Fatherland (VDP), a civilian force that supports the military, launched operations that were able “to neutralise several hundred terrorists,” according to security sources.

At the beginning of the week, Security Minister Mahamadou Sana described the wave of attacks as “co-ordinated.”

“This change in the enemy’s tactical approach is because terrorist bases have been destroyed as well as training camps and actions were carried out to dry up the enemy’s source of financing, as well as its supply corridors,” said Sana.

Mosques and imams have in the past been the target of attacks blamed on jihadists.

Churches in Burkina have also at times been targeted and Christians have been kidnapped.

The ACLED analysis group says that 439 people were killed in such violence in January alone.

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“Armed individuals attacked a mosque in Natiaboani on Sunday around 5:00 am, resulting in several dozen being killed,” a security source said. 

“The victims were all Muslims, most of them men” who had come for morning prayers, a local resident said by telephone.

Another local source said “the terrorists entered the town early morning. They surrounded the mosque and shot at the faithful, who were gathered there for the first prayer of the day.”

“Several of them were shot, including an important religious leader,” the source added.

Soldiers and members of the Volunteers for the Defence of the Fatherland (VDP), a civilian force that supports the military, were also targeted “by these hordes who came in large numbers”, the same source said.

The source described it as a “large-scale attack” in terms of the number of assailants, who also wreaked substantial damage.

Natiaboani is a rural community about 60 kilometers (37 miles) south of Fada N’Gourma, the main town in Burkina’s eastern region, which has seen regular attacks by armed groups since 2018.

On the same day as the attack on the mosque, at least 15 civilians were killed and two others injured during an attack on a Catholic church during Sunday mass in northern Burkina Faso, a senior church official said. 

Jean-Pierre Sawadogo, vicar of the Dori diocese, said in a statement that the “terrorist attack” occurred in the village of Essakane while people were gathered for Sunday prayer.

Essakane village is in what is known as the “three borders” zone in the northeast of the country, near the common borders of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger.

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