There are few places as conducive to insurgency and terrorism as Borno state in northeastern Nigeria. Grinding poverty, ethnic and religious tensions, illicit networks, environmental degradation, porous international borders, and vast tracts of lightly governed and ungoverned spaces are all features of Borno state. On... 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

*To read Part One, please click here.   Beginning in 2019, Russia intensified its outreach to some Central African countries—particularly, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the Republic of the Congo (hereafter, the Congo). Russian interests in the region are premised on a... MORE

Introduction The first months of 2020 witnessed significant diplomatic activity between the Gulf and the Maghreb. However, the emerging global economic crisis caused by the COVID-19 pandemic will likely affect some of these diplomatic dynamics. In January 2020, the Berlin conference on Libya offered an... MORE

The Shifting Power of al-Qaeda’s Affiliates Brian M. Perkins Several significant developments with broad implications for al-Qaeda and its global affiliates have taken place since early 2019. Leadership losses and changing conflict dynamics have led to a notable reshuffling in terms of the strength and... 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