Islamist groups - The African Mirror

Mar

2024

Junta-led Sahel states to form joint force to fight insurgents

JUNTA-LED Niger, Burkina Faso, and Mali have agreed to set up a joint force to tackle security threats across their territories, Niger's armed forces chief Moussa Salaou Barmou said after a meeting with his counterparts. The decision is the latest sign of closer alignment to emerge since the three neighbours in West Africa's insurgency-torn central Sahel region severed military ties with longstanding allies including France and formed a cooperation pact known as the Alliance of Sahel States (AES). In a televised statement, Barmou said the new task force would be "operational as soon as possible to meet the security challenges," but did…

Mar

2023

By The African Mirror

Militant Islamist violence in Africa surges – deaths up nearly 50%, events up 22% in a year

NEWS

MILITANT Islamist violence in Africa set new records for violent events and fatalities this past year. This continues a relentless decade-long upward trend. To give a sense of the accelerating pace of this threat, both violent events and fatalities have almost doubled since 2019. In a recent Africa Center for Strategic Studies analysis, we found that there were 6,859 episodes of violence involving militant Islamist groups in Africa in 2022. This is a 22% increase from 2021. Fatalities linked to these events shot up 48% to 19,109 deaths. This reflects a sharp rise in deaths per event. Notably, the spike…

May

2021

By The African Mirror

Abubakar Shekau: battle for supremacy among Islamist groups bodes ill for the Sahel

THOUGHT LEADERSHIP

THE Nigerian military says it is investigating claims that the Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau is dead. His death has not been independently confirmed. It is also not the first time a claim like this has been made. The reports have nevertheless raised questions about who has the upper hand in the region – Boko Haram or the breakaway Islamic State West Africa Province. Adejuwon Soyinka, The Conversation’s West Africa regional editor, asked Folahanmi Aina, an expert on Boko Haram and security in the Lake Chad Basin region, to analyse the security situation. FOLAHANMI AINA, Doctoral Candidate in Leadership Studies,…

May

2021

By The African Mirror

Israel kills militant commander after Palestinian rocket fire, UN General Assembly to meet

WORLD

NIDAL al-MUGHRABI and RAMI AYYUB ISRAEL killed a senior Palestinian militant commander in heavy air strikes on Gaza on Monday and Islamist groups renewed rocket attacks on Israeli cities despite mounting international calls for a ceasefire. As the fiercest hostilities in the region in years entered a second week, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken urged all sides to protect civilians, while Washington, Egypt and U.N. mediators stepped up efforts to end the fighting. U.N. General Assembly President Volkan Bozkir said the 193-member body will meet on Thursday to discuss the situation. Gaza health officials put the Palestinian death toll…

Jan

2021

By The African Mirror

Four U.N. peacekeepers killed in Mmali

NEWS

FOUR United Nations peacekeepers were killed and five wounded in central Mali after a convoy struck an explosive device and came under fire, the U.N. said. It was not clear who carried out the attack about 20 km (12 miles) north of the town of Bambara-Maoudé in the Timbuktu region. Islamist groups linked to al Qaeda and Islamic State operate in the region and have made much of the West African country ungovernable. The U.N. mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, said in a statement on Wednesday that three peacekeepers had been killed and six wounded in the attack. A…