Jihadists linked to the Islamic State and al-Qaeda are wreaking terror in the Sahel. They have taken control of most of Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso, the three countries currently ruled by military juntas whose leaders’ ascension to power was, also, a response to their previous democratic governments’ inability to deal with the terrorism situation in their respective countries and the region as a whole.
Now the triad – Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso – who have formed the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), have come together to put together a joint force to fight the very evil from which they collaterally benefitted.
Niger’s army chief Moussa Salaou Barmou made the announcement on Wednesday, 7 March 2024 following talks in his country’s capital, Niamey. The composition and other details of the joint force are sketchy for now but the whole purpose is to use such a military body to smoke out jihadists and Islamic fundamentalists from the Sahel.
All three countries have cut ties with former colonial master France and exited the Economic Community of West African States, whose leaders they accused of siding with foreign powers and doing little in the anti-terrorism department. Additionally, they withdrew from the G5, an international anti-terrorism force and formed the Alliance of Sahel States (AES) – a closely-knit replacement. Also, the leaders of the juntas ordered the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, Minusma, that for decades, had was helping the security situation in the region, to pack out. But while cutting ties with some Westerners, they were strengthening ties with others such as Russia.
However, despite the juntas’ promise to stem the tide of terrorism in the region, the situation seems to be worsening, as the jihadists control, in some cases, as much as 70 per cent of the countries, thus, posing great danger to the entire sub-region.
The terrorism situation in the Sahel
According to the VOA, the jihadist insurgency spread to Niger and Burkina Faso from neighbouring Mali in 2015, notably at the “three borders”.
In Niger, soldiers in July 2023 overthrew President Mohamed Bazoum, pointing to the “degradation of the security situation” under his watch — a belief shared by many Nigeriens. Twenty-nine soldiers were killed in western Niger in an attack by suspected jihadists on October 3, the deadliest of a dozen attacks which have killed 130 people since the military took power. On October 10 the French army said it had begun withdrawing its 1,400 troops from Niger after being ordered out of the country by the coup leaders.
Mali
In Mali, jihadist and separatist insurgencies broke out in the north in 2012 and anger at the government’s failure to stem the violence helped spark two coups in 2020 and 2021. It currently faces heightened activity by jihadist groups and a resumption of hostilities in the north by predominantly Tuareg armed groups. Since August, there has been a series of attacks against army positions and civilians in the Timbuktu and Gao regions.
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso saw two military coups last year, also triggered by anger at failures to stem a jihadist insurgency. When he seized power, Captain Ibrahim Traore set himself “two to three months” to improve security, but one year on, jihadist attacks still plague the nation. More than 6,000 people have died in attacks since the start of this year, of 17,000 dead since 2015, according to a count by the NGO monitor Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED). France withdrew its troops in February 2023.
Chad
In Chad, Mahamat Idriss Deby Itno is the transitional president pending a return to civilian rule following the death of his father Idriss Deby Itno in 2021. The CCMSR — the Military Command Council for the Salvation of the Republic — is one of a constellation of rebel groups that have a decades-long history of seeking to overturn Chad’s regime. The remote and dangerous rebel region Tibesti is the theatre for sporadic but intense episodes of fighting. Week-long clashes broke out in the area in June, with different versions of events — the army said it killed 23 rebels and insurgents said they had killed 15 soldiers.
Spillover
The VOA notes that Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Togo are increasingly facing threats of a jihadist spillover from Burkina Faso and Mali. Around 40 soldiers and 100 civilians have been killed in a jihadist “war” in northern Togo, President Faure Gnassingbe said in April.
Attempts by terrorists, extremists to expand network to West Africa ‘substantial security risk to Ghana’s stability’ – Akufo-Addo
In October 2023, the European Union donated 105 militarised vehicles to Ghana for anti-terrorism operations. They cost €20 million. At the commissioning ceremony, President Nana Akufo-Addo said: “The latest attempts by extremists and terrorists to expand their sphere of influence from the Sahel to coastal West Africa are evident, and these actions pose a substantial security risk to the people and stability of Ghana”. “Recent occurrences of terrorist activities in Burkina Faso, Togo, and Benin underscore the pressing need for Ghana to enhance its counterterrorism measures”, the president added. He noted: “It is imperative to understand that no single country can confront terrorist threats alone”.
He, thus, said: “Collaborative efforts among nations facing this challenge and critical support from partners such as the European Union, who share in our security concerns, remain crucial in mitigating the terrorist threat in the West African region.”
At that event, the High Representative of the European Union, Mr Josep Borrell, said: “To prevent terrorism, you have to attack the root causes”. “Everything has a cause, so, let us look at the causes—not to justify, but to explain—so that we can act in a more intelligent manner. We need intervention, which requires improved service provision and job creation, especially for the youth and women.”
A couple of weeks prior to that event, President Akufo-Addo called on leaders of the global community to put into full effect the provisions of Chapters Seven and Eight of the UN Charter and provide proportionate support to Africa’s fight against terrorism and violent extremism.
According to President Akufo-Addo, despite the considerable economic difficulties confronting ECOWAS member states, eleven of them, as well as the four military-led States, had made clear their willingness to take the fight to the terrorists, if they were sufficiently empowered. “Comparisons, they say, are odious, but some cannot be ignored. The Russian war on Ukraine has elicited, according to my information, some US$73.6 billion in American support for Ukraine, US$138.8 billion from the European Union and its institutions, and US$14.5 billion from the United Kingdom,” he said. The President continued, “On the other hand, the security assistance from the US, the EU and the UK to ECOWAS have, in total, in the same period, amounted to US$29.6 million.”
Mr Akufo-Addo noted that with the right amount of support to ECOWAS, he was certain that the terrorists “can be chased out of West Africa and the Sahel, too. Foreign troops would not have to be involved. West African troops can do the job. The Accra Initiative is a good example of indigenous self-help.”
The Ghanaian leader was speaking on “Democracy and Security in West Africa”, at the United States Institute of Peace’s Programme on Governance and Peace, on Thursday, 12 October 2023, in Washington D.C., U.S.A, when he made this call.
Explaining the emergence of terrorists in West Africa, the President noted that “the terrorists, as we all know, were chased out of the Middle East and Afghanistan before taking refuge in Muammar Gaddafi’s Libya, from where they fled across the Sahara to find refuge in northern Mali after Gaddafi’s downfall.” They have, since then, he intimated, “spread their pernicious influence eastwards and southwards, with the coastal states of West Africa their ultimate destination.”
Citing rising levels of displacement of populations in many parts of the Sahel due to the insecurity engendered by the armed groups, President Akufo-Addo, who has been a 2-term Chairman of ECOWAS, said, “Africa has become the centre of attraction for terrorist groups which are multiplying in the region, following defeats suffered in other parts of the world.”
He mentioned that the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on developing countries, has unfortunately, “left many countries and regional bodies, particularly in the Sahel, in very dire economic situations”, adding: “This has compounded the challenges we face in the mobilisation of resources to fight terrorists in our backyards.” The focus on this and the challenge against democracy across the region, the President added, is because “we have, virtually, run out of time to work together in the spirit of multilateralism,” and added that, “if we do not renew our commitments to build, keep and consolidate peace and democracy all over the world, we would have to brace ourselves to live in a new and more dangerous world today and in the future.”
Mr Akufo-Addo, who leaves office in January 2025, called for a “global coalition of democracies” to fight violent extremist groups in West Africa that have been spreading south from the Sahel toward Ghana and its neighbours.
“The menace caused by terrorism is such that we must share the burden of the fight,” said Afuko-Addo in his Washington speech, saying: “This is a time for a global coalition of democracies, a coalition of the willing, determined to banish the spectre of terrorism and violent extremism.”
The Theeastafrican.co.ke reported last year that while Ghana has, so far, been spared direct violence attributed to militias, Togo, Benin and Ivory Coast have all suffered attacks near their borders in recent years. An official declaration by Washington that a coup had taken place in Niger has cut off $500 million in assistance to the country, though for now it is maintaining its force of about 1,000 troops there.
As of earlier this year, Benin had reported more than 20 armed incursions since 2021, and Togo’s president in April said that 100 civilians and 40 soldiers had been killed in militia attacks.
ECOWAS intensifies efforts to fight terrorism and insecurity in the sub-region
ECOWAS is intensifying efforts to create a counter-terrorism force to fight terrorism in the West African sub-region, the regional bloc announced this month. The ECOWAS Commissioner of Political Affairs, Peace and Security, Ambassador Abdel-Fatau Musah, disclosed this to journalists during the weekly press conference in Abuja, Nigeria, on Friday, 8 March 2024.
He said the decision to create a counter-terrorism force was made by the Authority of Heads of States and Government during an extraordinary summit in Abuja. Ambassador Musah added that the region’s Chiefs of Defence Staff have developed a concept of operations for the force and Ministers of Finance and Defence are expected to meet to work out the modalities to finance the counter terrorism force.
Terrorism, he noted, was undoubtedly the major existential threat confronting ECOWAS member states noting that “the threats facing the region are not confined to states but across borders and require cross border collaboration”.
To illustrate the impact of terrorism on people in the sub-region, he disclosed that in 2023, over 3,500 incidents of terrorist attacks were recorded in the ECOWAS sub-region. They include close to 2,000 in Burkina Faso, more than 1,044 in Mali and 500 in Niger, resulting in about 7,000 fatalities in the three countries while a total of 4.8 million people face food insecurity, 2.4 million got internally-displaced and close to 9,000 schools closed.
Still on measures to fight terrorism, Ambassador Musah said the ECOWAS logistics depot at Lungi is at 98% completion. The depot is envisaged to provide support to ECOWAS peace support operations to effectively combat violent extremism and terrorist activities in the West African sub-region.
On sustaining democracy, the Commissioner said: “ECOWAS made the conscious choice because of the crisis in the sub-region to adopt a code of behaviour of member states which they are signatories to and so ECOWAS does not do anything outside protocols and instruments that have been agreed by all the 15 member states of our region”.
Ambassador Musah explained that liberal democracy, as practised in the region, has, at times, been reduced to ‘electoralism, meaning that in between elections, there is very little in terms of societal well-being, creating conditions for social services, infrastructural development and inclusive governance. “Elections have become a do-or-die affair in some states, and this is what ECOWAS is fighting against”. Elections, he argues, must enshrine democracy which must correlate with societal well-being, food security and basic infrastructure for citizens. To this end, he said ECOWAS has been trying to review the supplementary protocol on democracy and good governance to make sure that sitting presidents do not fiddle with their constitutions or electoral law to perpetuate themselves in power. To protect fragile democracies, he said ECOWAS has been maintaining military missions in Gambia and Guinea Bissau while another is being contemplated in Sierra Leone following the last jailbreak and attempted takeover in that country. Ambassador Musah emphasised that the strength of ECOWAS lies in all 15 member states working together and facing the challenges together.
