Latest Articles about West Africa
Boko Haram’s Man in Cameroon: Alhaji Abdalla
Since Boko Haram kidnapped seven members of the French Moulin-Fournier family in February 2013, its first major operation in Cameroon, the militant group’s operations in Cameroon have steadily increased. Throughout 2014, Boko Haram attempted to seize control of the four most important border points connecting... MORE
Boko Haram’s Emerging Caliphate in Nigeria: Will Maiduguri Fall?
On August 29, several hundred Boko Haram militants stormed the town of Gwoza in Nigeria’s northeastern Borno State. Government buildings were taken over and churches destroyed, while local inhabitants were told that the town will be governed according to Shari’a (Sahara Reporters, August 12). A... MORE
Boko Haram’s ‘Borno Kidnapping Duo’: Hafsat Bako and Babuji Yaari
Boko Haram militants dressed in Nigerian military fatigues kidnapped 276 girls, almost all of them Christians, from a secondary school in Chibok in northeastern Nigeria’s Borno State on April 15, 2014. Boko Haram leader Abubakr Shekau claimed responsibility for the attack in a split-screen video... MORE
Boko Haram Opens New Fronts in Lagos and Nigeria’s Middle Belt
Since Boko Haram kidnapped more 250 girls from Chibok in Borno State on April 14, new signs have emerged that Ansaru – whose leaders were Nigerian members of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) – has reintegrated with Boko Haram and its former operatives are... MORE
A Divided Military Fuels Mali’s Political Crisis
Both short- and long-term prospects for renewed stability in Mali’s restive northern region took a heavy blow with the May collapse of the Forces armées du Mali (FAMA) in the face of Tuareg and Arab resistance in the northeastern Kidal region. The collapse reflected long-standing... MORE
Boko Haram Leader Abubakar Shekau: Dead, Deposed or Duplicated?
Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau made international headlines on May 5, when he appeared in a video threatening to “sell as slaves in the market” more than 250 schoolgirls that Boko Haram kidnapped (Vanguard [Lagos], May 6). Although this video gave Shekau notoriety around the... MORE
Alleged Connection between Boko Haram and Nigeria’s Fulani Herdsmen Could Spark a Nigerian Civil War
In recent weeks, Nigerian security forces have claimed that some groups of semi-nomadic Fulani herdsmen engaged in bitter and bloody conflicts with farmers in several Nigerian states are actually composed of members of Boko Haram. A statement from Nigerian Director of Defense Information Major General... MORE
Hot Issue: Boko Haram’s Mass-Kidnapping in Chibok: Shekau’s Gains and Objectives
Executive Summary On May 12, 2013, Boko Haram’s leader, Abubakar Shekau, demanded in a video that all Boko Haram prisoners, which number in the hundreds in Nigeria, Cameroon and Niger, be released before he orders the return of more than 250 girls kidnapped in April.... MORE
Congolese Forces Take the Offensive Against Uganda’s ADF-NALU Militants
Fresh from a victory over the rebel troops of the Mouvement du 23 Mars (M23) in the unsettled but resource-rich Nord-Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), the Congolese army has launched an offensive against the self-described “Islamists” of the Allied Democratic... MORE
Ombatse: Nigerian Religious Cult Joins War on the State in Central Nigeria
Nigeria has experienced years of sectarian violence between Christians and Muslims and endured massacres and bombings by religiously-inspired groups like Boko Haram. Now, however, with the slaughter of as many as 90 members of Nigeria’s security forces, practitioners of one of Nigeria’s many forms of... MORE