The Sahel, according to Britannica, is a semiarid region of western and north-central Africa extending from Senegal eastward to Sudan. It forms a transitional zone between the arid Sahara (desert) to the north and the belt of humid savannas to the south. The Sahel stretches from the Atlantic Ocean eastward through northern Senegal, southern Mauritania, the great bend of the Niger River in Mali, Burkina Faso (formerly Upper Volta), southern Niger, northeastern Nigeria, south-central Chad, and into Sudan.
The region has long been plagued by a myriad of security challenges, including coups, weak governance structures, terrorism, human trafficking, human rights abuses, climate change disasters, and socio-economic vulnerabilities, making it a breeding ground for various forms of violence and extremism.
Mali
Opposition voices have been largely stifled since the colonels seized power in a 2020 coup, overthrowing civilian president Ibrahim Boubacar Keita according to a report by France24. Mali’s high authority for communication issued a statement on Thursday, 11 April, 2024 calling on “all media (radio, television, written press and online) to halt broadcast and publication of the activities of political parties and the activities of a political nature of associations”. Though it did not indicate what would happen to media organisations that did not observe the ban, the move came after authorities ordered the indefinite suspension of all political activities, saying it was needed to maintain public order. Government spokesman Colonel Abdoulaye Maiga blamed the suspension of party activities on the “sterile discussions” during an attempt at national dialogue earlier this year. “Subversive acts by political parties are multiplying,” a decree read out to reporters by Maiga said.
He added that the fight against armed jihadist and Tuareg separatist groups could not be reconciled by “sterile political debates”. The latest crackdown has prompted numerous comments on social media but there was little reaction from parties or leading figures, already largely silenced. However, Moussa Mara, who was prime minister from 2014 until 2015, urged authorities to reverse the decision, calling it a “major step backwards” that “does not promise a peaceful future”.In addition, the president of the Convergence for the Development of Mali (CODEM) party, Housseini Amion Guindo, called for “civil disobedience until the fall of the illegal and illegitimate regime… due in particular to its inability to satisfy the essential needs of Malians”.
The military government has indefinitely postponed elections despite pressure from home and abroad to return to the path of civilian multi-party democracy. According to an election schedule announced in September 2023, the first round of voting was to be held on 04 February 2024 and the second on 18 February 2024. The regime has, however, postponed the elections without providing an updated electoral calendar. This postponement is the second in three years. During that time, the country experienced two military coups. The last time the country held presidential elections was in 2018. In a statement to the press on 25 September 2023, the junta blamed ‘technical issues’ for the delay in holding the elections. It also argued that the delay was necessary to allow for the adoption of new constitutional provisions in the electoral law and to increase the time between presidential elections.
In addition to the military intervention in the country’s politics, Mali, according to disinfo.africa, has been a hotbed of conflict since 2012 as a mixture of political armed groups, including ethnic-based movements, militants, and transnational criminal networks, fight for control of the sprawling north of the country. This has been largely led by Assimi Goïta. On 07 November 2023, the government carried out a series of drone strikes on Kidal. The mayor told the Associated Press that 14 people were among the victims, including the deputy mayor and a local councillor. Other residents said children were also killed in photos shared with Le Monde. The government stated that it used drones to target terrorist positions. A week later, Kidal fell to the junta with reported support from Russian-backed Wagner Group fighters in mid-November, a month after UN peacekeepers departed from nearby bases as part of a forced withdrawal directed by the transitional government in Bamako. On 15 November 2023, Moscow extended congratulations to Mali’s military government for recapturing the Kidal region from the ethnic Tuareg separatists. According to RT, the Russian foreign ministry praised the victory as a testament to the ‘impressive growth’ in the combat proficiency of the Malian armed forces.
Burkina Faso
In 2022, Burkina Faso suffered two coups just within 9 months. The first in January 2022 and the second in September 2022. The main reason for these coups was to address the country’s security crisis and the escalating militant Islamist threat . However, these regimes were unable to defeat the rebels, and instead lost even more territory to Jihadists and other militants
Previously, it has been observed that the epicentre of terrorism was the middle east. However, in recent years, this has shifted to the central Sahel region which now accounts for over half of all deaths from terrorism. In its 13-year coverage, this is the first time that a country, other than Afghanistan or Iraq, has been at the top of the index. Almost 2,000 people were killed in terrorist attacks in Burkina Faso from 258 incidents, accounting for nearly a quarter of all terrorist deaths globally. The Global Terroism Index 2024 reported that Burkina Faso suffered the worst impact from terrorism, with deaths increasing by 68% despite attacks decreasing by 17%. Also, it said Iraq recorded the largest improvement in the last decade with deaths from terrorism falling by 99% since the 2007 peak, to 69 in 2023. Meanwhile, it indicated that the impact of terrorism has become increasingly concentrated, with ten countries accounting for 87% of total terrorism-related deaths.
It adds that over 90% of terrorist attacks and 98% of terrorism deaths in 2023 occurred in conflict zones, underscoring the strong link between conflict and terrorism.
At the Council on Foreign Relations-Ghana’s recent fifth-anniversary lecture series at the Accra International Conference Centre in Ghana on Friday, 15 March 2024, on the theme: ‘ECOWAS at the crossroads: Emerging threats, challenges, and the way forward’, Ambassador Dr Abdel-Fatau Musah, Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace and Security of the Economic Community for West African States (ECOWAS), said the terrorism situation was worsening in the Sahel region, even though the military juntas of Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger rode on a pledge to stem the tide to seize power in their respective countries.
Ambassador Dr Musah said terrorism, “which all these regimes said was one of the main reasons why they took over”, is still festering in those countries. “Terrorism is becoming worse and worse in the countries”, he insisted, noting: “So, we have to look at all these situations”.
“If you are going to look at the figures, in 2023 alone, 3,500 terrorist attacks occurred in West Africa and even that is a lower number than previously, but what is interesting is that there are fewer attacks but greater fatalities because the state is withdrawing from the periphery, leaving people to their fate and the terrorist groups have got more lethal weapons and, so, with fewer attacks, they are causing more and more casualties among the population”, Ambassador Dr Musah noted.
“So, we have 3,500 attacks in 2023 and about 2,000 of them were in Burkina Faso alone, and then out of all these, 9,000 fatalities emerged from it”, he quoted from the Global Terrorist Index of 2024.
He said there were about “7,000 fatalities in the Alliance of Sahelian States alone out of the 9,000 in the region. Burkina Faso, today, has overtaken Afghanistan as the most terrorised country on earth. That is the reality that we are living there”.
In contrast, he said: “When the democratically elected government was there, about 30 percent of the territory was under terrorist occupation, you had about 700,ooo internally displaced people; today, there about two million internally displaced people in Burkina Faso and most of them are spilling over their border into Benin, Togo, Northern Ghana and then into Cote d’Ivoire”.
“So, we have a situation in that area and if these countries are to withdraw from ECOWAS, then how do you effectively combat terrorism in those areas? And how do we protect the coastal countries when terrorism is festering just on the northern border?” he asked, reiterating: “These are some of the critical questions that people have to ask themselves”. He said once terrorism festers, other crimes would, too. “… There is also the correlation between the terrorist attacks and transnational organised crime”.
Niger
Niger, which has been under military rule since July 2023 when an elite guard force led by General Abdourahamane Tchiani detained President Mohamed Bazoum and declared Tchiani ruler, in March this year, suspended its military agreement with the United States “with immediate effect”, according to the ruling military spokesman Colonel Amadou Abdramane, in a blow to US security interests in the region..
The pact, Al Jazeera reported, allowed US military personnel and civilian defence staff to operate from Niger, which plays a central role in the US military’s operations in Africa’s Sahel region.
The US military had some 650 personnel working in Niger in December, according to a White House report to Congress. The US military operates a major airbase in the Niger city of Agadez, some 920km (572 miles) from the capital of Niamey, using it for manned and unmanned surveillance flights and other operations.
A drone base known as Air Base 201 near Agadez was built at a cost of more than $100m. Since 2018, the base has been used to target ISIL (ISIS) fighters and Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM), an al-Qaeda affiliate, in the Sahel region.
Like the military rulers in neighbouring Mali and Burkina Faso, Niger has also kicked out French and other European forces. Both Mali and Burkina Faso have turned to Russia for support.
Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, which have allied and withdrawn from ECOWAS, all have a very low score on the Freedom in the World 2024 Index compiled by Freedom House. Mail – 26%, Burkina Faso – 27% and Niger – 33%.
Chad
Chad has been run by a junta since 2021 led by Mahamat Idriss Deby, son of the country’s late president Iddris Deby, The authorities have barred two fierce opponents of the military government from standing in the presidential election set for 6 May 2024. Chad’s Constitutional Council announced that outspoken opposition figures Nassour Ibrahim Neguy Koursami and Rakhis Ahmat Saleh had been barred. Deby, the interim president, seized power in 2021 when his long-ruling father Idriss Deby was killed on the front line against rebels in the north. He initially promised a return to civilian rule within 18 months. But his government later pushed elections back to 2024 and allowed him to stand for president. The delay triggered protests that were violently quelled by security forces with around 50 civilians killed. “Governing Chad is not easy. It is easy to criticise from afar on social media,” Al Jazeera quoted Deby as having written on social media.
Deby’s decision to run came days after opposition politician Yaya Dillo was killed in an exchange of gunfire with security forces, raising concerns about conditions for the upcoming poll. The nine other presidential candidates include Chad’s recently-appointed Prime Minister Succes Masra, a staunch opponent of the junta. The first round of voting is scheduled to take place on May 6 and the second round on June 22, with provisional results due on July 7. Over 40% of people live below the national poverty line in Chad, which is grappling with an influx of refugees fleeing conflict in neighbouring Sudan that is worsening food insecurity in the country.
Mauritania
Though one of the stable countries and a key partner in the fight against terrorism in the region, Mauritania is bearing the brunt of its neighbours’ political, security, social and environmental crises. In February this year, Africanews.com reported that the EU announced 210 million euros to help Mauritania crack down on people smugglers and deter migrant boats from taking off, as the number of people attempting the dangerous Atlantic crossing from West Africa to Europe rises sharply.
Mauritania, at a meeting with European officials in its coastal capital of Nouakchott, also noted that it was increasingly struggling to cope with the growing number of migrants and refugees entering its borders as security in the Sahel region declined. European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said during a meeting with Mauritanian President Mohamed Ould Ghazouani and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, that: “Insecurity and the lack of economic opportunity in the region are pushing many people to migrate. This causes many to fall into the traps of cynical smugglers and puts their lives in danger.”
For his part, the president of Mauritania said his country “is paying a heavy price in the management of migratory flows”, adding that his nation already hosts 150,000 refugees from neighbouring Mali and increasingly is not just a transit country but a destination for migrants. The President of Spain also said: “We are witnessing the fall of democratic governments, rise of terrorist attacks, a spike in refugees and internally displaced people, and the worsening of an already acute food security crisis”. “I am well aware that Mauritania is at the front line of all the consequences.” Spain’s Canary Islands have increasingly become a stepping stone for migrants and refugees trying to reach continental Europe from West Africa. In January alone, some 7,270 migrants landed on the archipelago, about as many as in the first six months of 2023.
The Atlantic route to Europe is one of the deadliest in the world, Von der Leyen said. Indeed, it is not uncommon for entire boats to vanish in the Atlantic with a few sometimes reappearing months later on the other side of the ocean with no survivors. The Canary Islands had already been struggling with a record number of arrivals last year with nearly 40,000 people arriving on its shores on boats mainly from Senegal. This year, departures from Mauritania, which had appeared to be under control for most of last year, have surged again.
North-eastern Nigeria
Although a stable democracy, the north-eastern part of Nigeria, which falls within the Sahel, is also plagued with terrorism. On Tuesday, 17 April 2024, Xinhua reported that at least three suspected key figures and 27 other members of a local terror group were killed in a recent air raid by the Nigerian military in a location along the shores of Lake Chad, the air force said Tuesday.
The raid dealt a decisive blow to the camp of the Islamic State’s West Africa Province (ISWAP) fighters with precision airstrikes on their hideouts in the Kolleram village of the northeastern state of Borno, which shares a border with Chad, said Edward Gabkwet, the spokesman for the Nigerian Air Force, in a statement.
The operation yielded significant success as the battle damage assessment revealed that at least three senior commanders of the ISWAP group were killed in the raid, the Air Force statement said.
“Additionally, numerous vehicles, motorcycles and logistical assets were destroyed, severely hampering the terrorists’ operational capabilities,” it said, adding that intelligence gathered after the air strike further indicated that the aerial bombardment effectively obliterated a key facility within the Kolleram enclave, which served as a hub for the terrorists’ food processing activities, including grinding machines.
The success of these airstrikes underscored the commitment of the military to eradicate terrorism and ensure the safety and security of Nigerian citizens, the statement said. It also noted that by neutralising key terrorist figures and destroying their logistical infrastructure, the operation had significantly degraded the capabilities of the ISWAP group in the region.
“These airstrikes complement the ongoing efforts of ground forces in the Lake Chad flank and represent a crucial step forward in the fight against terrorism in Nigeria,” it added.
Boko Haram
14 April 2024 marked exactly 10 years since 276 girls were abducted from Chibok secondary school in Borno state in 2014. Since then, Amnesty International says it has documented at least 17 cases of mass abductions in which at least 1,700 children were seized from their schools by gunmen and taken into the bush, where, in many cases, they were subjected to serious abuse, including rape. Some of the girls escaped captivity on their own, while others were later released following intense campaigning efforts by civil society organisations and negotiations by the government. Of those initially abducted, however, 82 girls remain in captivity, while several children have been abducted in subsequent attacks.
Sudan
In March this year, the UN warned that nearly five million people in Sudan are at risk of “catastrophic” hunger in the coming months if the warring parties in the country do not allow aid deliveries. In a note to the UN Security Council, UN aid chief Martin Griffiths said acute levels of hunger were being driven by the impact of the conflict on agricultural production, damage to major infrastructure and livelihoods, disruptions to trade, severe price hikes, impediments to humanitarian access and massive displacement. “Without urgent humanitarian assistance and access to basic commodities … almost 5 million people could slip into catastrophic food insecurity in some parts of the country in the coming months,” Al Jazeera quoted Griffiths as having written. He said it was likely that some people in West and Central Darfur would move into famine conditions as security worsens, adding that cross-border aid delivery from Chad to Darfur is a “critical lifeline”. “This is a moment of truth. The parties must silence the guns, protect civilians and ensure humanitarian access,” Griffiths said in a post on X. He noted that nearly 730,000 Sudanese children – including more than 240,000 in Darfur – are thought to suffer from “severe” malnutrition. “An unprecedented surge in the treatment of severe wasting, the most lethal manifestation of malnutrition, is already being observed in accessible areas,” Griffiths said.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed since war broke out last April between the General Abdel Fattah al-Burhan-led Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces (RSF) of General Mohamed Hamdan “Hemedti” Dagalo. Some 8.3 million people have been displaced from the country, many forced into neighbouring Chad and South Sudan. Millions in need of aid cannot access it as the warring factions “deliberately” deny access to supplies, the UN has warned earlier and said this could amount to a war crime. According to Al Jazeera, the UN Security Council’s call for a Ramadan ceasefire was rejected by SAF, saying it would only halt attacks if the RSF pulled out of the swathes of the area it now controls. The RSF, which appeared to be gaining the upper hand in the war, has been accused of atrocities such as summary killings and armed robberies in the provinces under its control. Women have also allegedly been raped or abducted by the group – or by militias aligned with it. Half of the country’s 50 million people require aid and “just under 18 million people are on the road to famine,” Griffiths said, adding that 10 million more people “are in the category of food insecure than the same time last year”.The UN’s $2.7bn humanitarian response plan for Sudan in 2024 has been only 4 percent funded.
Northern Senegal
Despite all the turmoil in the region, Africa’s democracy bulwark – Senegal – is, ironically, partly nestled within the Sahel. After the immediate past president’s election postponement gaffe which almost soiled Senegal’s enviable status as one of the few African states that has never experienced a coup d’état, the country held delayed elections on 24 March 2024 and set a new record by electing the continent’s youngest president to date. Bassirou Diomaye Faye, a 44-year-old little-known anti-establishment candidate, who had just been freed from prison about 10 days before the election, after having been imprisoned since April 2023, won the poll, which had been originally scheduled for 25 February 2024. After peaceful pro-democracy protests in the capital of Dakar, which were marked by violence, death and arrests, and international criticism of what many saw as a “constitutional coup” to stay in power for an extra-constitutional period, President Macky Sall gave in to pressure and declared a new date after the Senegalese Constitutional Court ruled, he could not remain in office beyond his 2 April term.
Conclusion It is clear from the above that the Sahel is caught up in a complex web of coups, terrorism, human trafficking, climate change disasters, poor governance and social upheaval. Coups d’état, or military takeovers have been commonplace in the region and it appears we haven’t seen the last of them yet. These coups often stem from grievances related to poor governance, corruption, and lack of democratic accountability. The frequent changes in government leadership through coups have contributed to political instability and hindered the region’s socio-economic development. The Sahel region has also become a hotbed for terrorist activities perpetrated by various extremist groups, including Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS), Boko Haram, and Ansaroul Islam, among others. These groups exploit religion, local grievances, ethnic tensions, and socio-economic marginalisation to recruit fighters and expand their influence. Terrorist attacks in the Sahel range from targeted assassinations and ambushes to large-scale assaults on military bases and civilian populations. The violence perpetrated by these groups not only causes loss of life and displacement but also undermines efforts to promote stability, development, and regional integration. Security threats in the Sahel are multifaceted and interconnected, with terrorism often intersecting with other forms of criminality, including drug trafficking, arms smuggling, and human trafficking. The proliferation of small arms and light weapons exacerbates conflicts and undermines efforts to establish peace and security in the region. Furthermore, environmental degradation, climate change, and resource scarcity exacerbate existing vulnerabilities and contribute to conflicts over land, water, and grazing rights. The competition for scarce resources fuels communal tensions and provides fertile ground for extremist ideologies to take root. Addressing the complex security challenges in the Sahel requires a comprehensive approach that combines military, political, economic, and humanitarian strategies. Strengthening governance institutions, promoting inclusive political dialogue, and addressing socio-economic inequalities are crucial steps in addressing the root causes of instability and violence. Enhancing regional cooperation and coordination among Sahelian countries, as well as with international partners and organisations, is essential for effectively combating terrorism and transnational threats. Investment in education, job creation, and community development can help mitigate the drivers of extremism and build resilience against radicalisation. Moreover, efforts to address environmental degradation and mitigate the impacts of climate change are essential for promoting stability and sustainable development in the Sahel. By addressing the interconnected drivers of insecurity, the international community can contribute to fostering peace, prosperity, and resilience in this vital region of Africa.
