The town of Baga, Nigeria on Lake Chad’s shorelines is where Boko Haram originally made its mark as one of the world’s most lethal jihadist movements. In January 2015, when Boko Haram was conquering territory throughout northeastern Nigeria’s Borno State, the group finally captured Baga... MORE

On June 15, Boko Haram released a video featuring English, French (Cameroonian), Fulani, and Hausa-speaking fighters “greeting” fellow fighters in Zamfara and Niger states. [1] Three weeks later, on July 7, Boko Haram released another video of fighters in Niger State returning “greetings” to Boko... MORE

Can and Will the SADC Help Contain Violence in Mozambique? Brian M. Perkins The insurgency in Mozambique’s northern Cabo Delgado province has continued to escalate over the past several months, prompting the South African Development Community (SADC)—a regional inter-governmental organization—to convene an emergency meeting of... MORE

Since Islamic State in Greater Sahara (ISGS)’s killing of four U.S. special forces members in October 2017 in northwestern Niger, the group has increasingly become defined by France and allied Sahelian governments as the “priority” regional threat for counter-terrorism operations (Diplomatie.gouv.fr, January 13). ISGS peaked... MORE

Introduction Through 2019 into early 2020, the G5 Sahel Group (Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, Niger) has suffered painful losses caused by the activities of regional terrorist organizations. In January, the United Nations' envoy for West Africa, Mohamed Ibn Chambas, told the Security Council that... MORE

Since al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)’s formation in 2007, its most important members have not only been militants, but also theologians. The latter, such as Abu Ubaydah Yusuf Annabi, have justified AQIM’s tactics, including suicide bombings, and AQIM’s targeting, including on Algerian and West... MORE

Who is Mokhtar Belmokhtar? Mokhtar Belmokhtar is an Algerian national who fought in the country’s 1990s civil conflict and later became a commander in al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM)’s southern branch. He was given the moniker “Mr. Marlboro” on account of his role in... MORE

At the end of March, Chadian president Idriss Déby announced the launch of a “merciless” offensive against ‘Boko Haram,’ albeit without clarifying whether Chad would target the larger faction, Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), or the smaller faction, Jamaat Ahlussunnah lid-Dawa wal-Jihad (JAS)... MORE

Introduction Following the 1991 dissolution of the USSR—which maintained diplomatic relations with 46 African countries in the mid-1980s­—the Russian Federation lost a large part of the Soviet influence on the continent. Beginning in the mid-2000s, however, Russia`s regional policy started to change, and the outbreak... MORE

Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP), like other jihadist groups, is prone to internal leadership purges. After pledging loyalty to Abubakar al-Baghdadi and joining Islamic State (IS) in March 2015, ISWAP’s hardline leader, Abubakar Shekau, was ejected from the group in August 2016. IS... MORE