Relations between Nigeria and its northern Sahel neighbor Niger have been tense since the military took over in Niamey in 2023 and broke away from the regional bloc ECOWAS.

Nigeria’s President Bola Ahmed Tinubu, who is head of the Economic Community of West African States, initially took a hardline but has since been trying to persuade the three junta-led states Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso to return to the group.

Nigeria’s chief of defense staff, General Christopher Musa, on Wednesday met in Niamey with General Moussa Salaou Barmou to discuss security cooperation, a Nigerian military statement said.

“Both parties reaffirmed their commitment to resuming and strengthening collaboration, with a view to ensuring regional stability and security,” it said on Thursday.

The statement said Niger’s chief of staff would visit Nigeria to finalize cooperation, and a Niger advisory group would be created to improve communication between the two militaries.

“Niger affirmed its readiness to resume active participation in security cooperation under the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJT),” the statement said.

The task force, involving Nigeria, Niger, Cameroon, and Chad, has been key in battling jihadists active along the border areas of the four countries.

Niger’s military government is battling jihadists linked to the Islamic State group, Al-Qaeda, and Boko Haram in the western Tillaberi region and in the southeastern Diffa area near Nigeria.

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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.

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The attacks, which took place on Saturday in the Beni territory in the troubled North Kivu province, were blamed on ADF rebels affiliated with the Islamic State group.

The toll of those killed “has been revised from 10 to 18 people”, Kinos Katuo, a civil society leader of the area where the attacks took place, told AFP.

He added that 14 people are missing, with four houses and two motorcycles also burned.

Another local leader, Charles Endukado, told AFP the number of people killed in the attacks is “more than 18.”

“No one can go to recover the bodies that are still lying on the ground,” he said.

The ADF, originally mainly Muslim Ugandan rebels, have established a presence over the past three decades in eastern DRC, killing thousands of civilians.

The group pledged allegiance in 2019 to the Islamic State group, which portrays them as its central African branch.

The ADF was also blamed for an attack that killed 20 at the end of July.

Local authorities in Beni told AFP in mid-June that since the beginning of the same month, 150 people had been killed in attacks attributed to the ADF in eastern DRC.

Since the end of 2021, the Congolese and Ugandan armies have been conducting joint operations against the ADF in North Kivu and the neighboring province of Ituri but have so far failed to stop the deadly attacks on civilians.

The post Death Toll in East DR Congo Attacks Climbs, Others Missing appeared first on The Defense Post.

The jihadist group said on its Telegram channel late Sunday that “one Shiite was killed in a bombing by Caliphate soldiers in the Afghan capital.”

Kabul police said on Sunday the blast occurred in a western Kabul neighborhood home to many Shiite Muslims, a historically persecuted minority in Afghanistan and a frequent target of the Islamic State group that considers them heretics.

Italian nongovernmental organization Emergency NGO, which operates a hospital in Kabul, said on social media platform X that it had received eight people wounded in the blast, with seven in need of surgery and one “in a serious condition.”

The number of deadly bomb blasts and suicide attacks in Afghanistan has declined markedly since the Taliban ended their insurgency after seizing power in August 2021. However, a number of armed groups, including Islamic State-Khorasan, remain a threat.

Islamic State-Khorasan, or IS-K, is the group’s Afghanistan branch, “Khorasan,” referring to a historical region that included parts of Iran, Afghanistan, and Central Asia.

The group also claimed an attack targeting tourists in Afghanistan in May that killed six people, including three foreigners.

It has also claimed responsibility for an attack on a Moscow concert hall in March that killed 145 people.

A UN counter-terrorism official warned this month that IS-K poses the greatest external terrorist threat to Europe, having “improved its financial and logistical capabilities in the past six months.”

Chief Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid said the concerns raised were “driven by propaganda” and that the group had been “significantly weakened” in Afghanistan.

“The Islamic Emirate (of Afghanistan) does not allow anyone to use Afghan soil against the security of any other country or to pose threats from Afghanistan,” he wrote on X.

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“ISIL-K has improved its financial and logistical capabilities in the past six months, including by tapping into Afghan and Central Asian diasporas for support,” Vladimir Voronkov, undersecretary-general for counter-terrorism, said.

ISIL-K, or ISIS-K, is an acronym of the jihadist group’s branch in Afghanistan, known as Islamic State Khorasan Province.

The group claimed a March attack on a music hall in Moscow, which left 145 people dead.

On Wednesday, Austrian authorities detained Islamic State-linked suspects for allegedly plotting to attack a Taylor Swift concert in Vienna, though no link has been reported to the Afghanistan branch.

But the risk of the Afghanistan branch carrying out terrorist attacks abroad has “become manifest,” Voronkov said, noting the group has also intensified its recruitment efforts.

In the latest report from UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres on the subject, published last month, it was noted that authorities were on high alert against potential attacks during the Euro football championship and Paris Olympics.

“I call on all member states to unite to prevent Afghanistan from again becoming a hotbed of terrorist activities that affect other countries,” Guterres wrote.

Elsewhere, Voronkov warned of a resurgence of Islamic State’s core structure in the Middle East, as well as a deteriorating situation in Africa, where Islamic State West Africa Province and Islamic State’s Sahel branch “have expanded and consolidated their areas of operations.”

“Should these groups extend their influence… a vast territory stretching from Mali to northern Nigeria could fall under their effective control,” he said, while also noting increasing attacks by Islamic State affiliates in Mozambique, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Somalia.

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The arrests were made mainly in Ankara and in Izmir in the west, as well as in the center, east and south, Interior Minister Ali Yerlikaya posted on X.

“99 suspects have been arrested in the GURZ-4 operations over the past three days,” Yerlikaya said.

“We will not tolerate any terrorist,” he added.

Turkish authorities have made several mass arrests of alleged IS members in recent years, most recently a roundup of 147 people announced in March.

After those arrests, Yerlikaya said police had detained a total of 2,919 people suspected of links to the jihadist group.

Two of the assailants who massacred 145 people at the Crocus City Hall in Moscow last March, an attack for which IS claimed responsibility, had spent several weeks in Turkey before heading to Russia, according to local authorities.

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The attack, attributed to the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) militant group by area residents, took place in the Beni territory in the troubled North Kivu province.

“The victims were cultivating their fields,” Nicolas Kikuku, mayor of the commune of Oicha, the capital of the Beni territory, told AFP.

He added that 20 deaths had been recorded.

“The enemy always attacks the poor farmers,” the mayor said.

The farmers were killed by gunshot or knife in a village around 30 kilometers (19 miles) from Oicha, where most of the bodies were brought.

The mayor was not able to specify the exact date of their death.

“Nineteen bodies were brought to the morgue last night,” Darius Syaira, civil society representative for Beni told AFP.

“This is a provisional report, because we have been informed of other bodies” in the same area, he added.

“We are asking for military reinforcements” in this region west of Oicha “to go on the offensive against the ADF who are causing us grief at all times,” Syaira said.

The ADF, originally made up of mainly Muslim Ugandan rebels, has established a presence over the past three decades in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, killing thousands of civilians.

Since the end of 2021, the Congolese and Ugandan armies have been conducting joint operations against the ADF in North Kivu and the neighboring province of Ituri but have so far failed to stop the deadly attacks on civilians.

The ADF pledged allegiance in 2019 to the Islamic State group, which portrays them as its central African branch.

The ADF has been accused of massacring Congolese civilians as well as staging attacks in neighboring Uganda.

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“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.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said the attack occurred on Wednesday evening as the militiamen were en route to search for a shepherd who had been kidnapped and subsequently killed by the IS jihadists.

The Observatory, a Britain-based monitor with sources in Syria, reported a death toll of eight, including “six members of the National Defence Forces and two sheep herders.”

IS overran large swathes of Syria and Iraq in 2014, proclaiming a so-called caliphate and launching a reign of terror.

It was defeated territorially in Syria in 2019, but its remnants still carry out deadly attacks — particularly in the Badia desert — and mainly targeting government loyalists and Kurdish-led fighters.

The desert runs from the outskirts of Damascus to the Iraqi border.

Last month, the Observatory said IS fighters had killed nearly 4,100 people in Syria since its so-called caliphate fell in 2019 — more than half of them in the Badia.

The United Nations in January said IS’ combined strength in Iraq and Syria was 3,000-5,000 fighters, with the Badia serving as a hub for the group in Syria.

Syria’s war has killed more than half a million people and displaced millions more since it erupted in March 2011 with Damascus’ brutal repression of anti-government protests.

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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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