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You may think you’re safe,” says a 57-year-old resident of Doropo in northern Ivory Coast. “But jihadists are like ants, they can come in without being noticed.”
Me in @TheEconomist on jihadists expanding from the Sahel into coastal west Africa (Thread) https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2020/07/11/jihadists-in-the-sahel-threaten-west-africas-coastal-states
Me in @TheEconomist on jihadists expanding from the Sahel into coastal west Africa (Thread) https://www.economist.com/middle-east-and-africa/2020/07/11/jihadists-in-the-sahel-threaten-west-africas-coastal-states
This war in the Sahel has been growing rapidly. Ten times more people were killed in #Niger, #Burkina Faso, and #Mali last year than in 2014
And that is despite thousands of troops trying to stop them.
And that is despite thousands of troops trying to stop them.
With American forces leaving #Afghanistan, the Sahel will soon be the West’s biggest combat zone.
#France has some 5,100 troops in the Sahel, the USA has about 1,200. The @UN has 15,000 blue helmets there, including 350 Germans, plus 250 British soldiers soon to arrive.
#France has some 5,100 troops in the Sahel, the USA has about 1,200. The @UN has 15,000 blue helmets there, including 350 Germans, plus 250 British soldiers soon to arrive.
President Macron says there have been some "spectacular results." But in the first half of this year more than 4,200 people have been killed, two-thirds more than in the same period last year according to @ACLEDINFO data
Worse, the jihadists are expanding in three directions at once. To the south they threaten Benin, #Ghana, Ivory Coast and Togo, to the west #Senegal and Mauritania, and to the east toward Nigeria's own jihadist groups. Thanks to @ACLEDINFO & my colleague @p_lloydy for this
Jihadists have been adept at exploiting ethnic faultlines, for instance between largely Muslim and seminomadic Fulani herders and more settled farming communities, which have their own armed groups of traditional hunters known as Dozos
They also expand looking for money. The migration corridor between Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast is the busiest in Africa. Jihadists cash in by taxing traders and smuggling stolen livestock, drugs and guns. More by @issafrica here https://issafrica.org/research/west-africa-report/violent-extremism-organised-crime-and-local-conflicts-in-liptako-gourma
The coastal states must avoid the mistakes of their Sahelian neighbours, whose security forces have often been brutal. This year, more civilians in the Sahel have been killed by government soldiers than by jihadists says @J_LuengoCabrera of @CrisisGroup
But according to cables seen by @TheEconomist, a diplomat in Burkina Faso’s capital, reported that the president, Roch Marc Christian Kaboré, privately admitted that some of his citizens may feel safer living among terrorists than with their own country’s armed forces
Above all, governments need to regain legitimacy by providing services and holding themselves to account. “It is not possible to win the war if there is not trust from the population,” says @NiagaleBagayoko
Calls are growing for negotiation with jihadists. But for now the outlook is bleak.
Jihadist fighters are “cutting off Bamako to the north and slowly encircling Ouagadougou”, says General Anderson, the head of US Special forces in Africa.
Jihadist fighters are “cutting off Bamako to the north and slowly encircling Ouagadougou”, says General Anderson, the head of US Special forces in Africa.
Much more in the article itself!
Big thanks to @sammednick for her help reporting on this.
And thanks also to @MENASTREAM @sahelblog @ibasson2 @YGuichaoua @tweetsintheME and many others for conversations on all of this
And thanks also to @MENASTREAM @sahelblog @ibasson2 @YGuichaoua @tweetsintheME and many others for conversations on all of this
