Despite modern Russia’s constrained resources, its foreign policy has long operated on a global scale. And one key area of this worldwide remit is increasingly Africa, where arms sales and security cooperation are again driving the diplomatic outreach. Thus, the past several weeks saw several... MORE

As it lost control of key regions in Iraq and Syria, Islamic State (IS) may have found a foothold in the conflict-ridden Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In April, IS claimed responsibility for two attacks on villages in eastern DRC, a region beset by rebel... MORE

Burkina Faso:  Recent Attacks Point to Spread of Terrorism in Burkina Faso and the Region Brian M. Perkins On May 16, Burkina Faso’s Foreign Minister called for the creation of a new counterterrorism coalition in the Sahel amid an escalation of terrorist activity throughout the... MORE

The jihadist landscape has increasingly pivoted from the Middle East to Africa, with a proliferation of both local and international terrorist organizations to the continent. The past several years has seen the growth and expansion of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb in the Sahel region... MORE

Author’s note: This article follows from an article previously published in China Brief in February 2018: “The United Front Work Department in Action Abroad: A Profile of The Council for the Promotion of the Peaceful Reunification of China” (February 13, 2018). That article presented evidence... MORE

Four years ago, Nigerian military sources said the country’s decision to shift to Russian military training and arms supplies was only an “interim measure” after its traditional partners, from the United States and the United Kingdom, seemingly showed insufficient interest in Nigeria’s fight against Boko... MORE

Islamic State Claims Signal Resilience and Shifting Strategy Brian M. Perkins Over the past several weeks, Islamic State (IS) has firmly demonstrated that it has entered the next phase of its global insurgency. The collapse of Baghouz, the last piece of the group’s caliphate to... MORE

When President Abdelaziz Bouteflika’s decision to run for a fifth term as president sparked large-scale countrywide demonstrations, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) saw an opportunity to exploit the sudden political instability (Le Point, February 25). The group expressed its support for the demonstrations in... MORE

A military airstrike in southern Somalia on March 22 killed Shaykh Ahmed Iman Ali, a.k.a Zunira, a deadly and influential Kenyan-born al-Shabaab militant leader. Ali, who was a fast-rising militant leader within al-Shabaab, or Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahideen, died alongside another 40 middle-level commanders. The strike is... MORE

Although Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau publicly declared a jihad only as late as 2010, 2002 is widely recognized as the year the Nigerian jihadist group was founded. The group’s leader then was Shekau’s predecessor, the Salafist cleric Muhammed Yusuf, who himself was aligned with... MORE