Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

NatSecEdge
cipherbrief

Welcome! Log in to stay connected and make the most of your experience.

Input clean

Sectarian Violence and Jihadist Terrorism in West Africa

Bottom Line Up Front

  • Increasing sectarian violence has destabilized once peaceful Burkina Faso, transforming the country into a hotbedof militant jihadist activity.
  • Fighters linked to AQIM and the so-called Islamic State in the Greater Sahara have been fighting for supremacy throughout West Africa.
  • Jihadists have long viewed West Africa as fertile ground for expansion, given the region’s weak security forces and high levels of corruption.
  • More than 70,000 people have been forced to flee their homes since the beginning of 2019, while terrorist attacks perpetrated by jihadists have increased fourfold over the past two years.

Increasing sectarian violence has destabilized once peaceful Burkina Faso, transforming the country into a hotbed of militant jihadist activity. Ongoing conflict throughout the region, including in neighboring Mali, has led to spillover violence that is now affecting Burkina Faso. Jihadists from Mali, equipped with sophisticated weaponry looted from Libyan arms depots, are seeking to establish roots in Burkina Faso, a country previously immune from the kind of terrorist activity that has plagued other countries in the region. France maintains an active presence in the region, but with the success of French military operations comes unintended consequences. As militants have been forced out of safe haven in Mali and Niger, they have fled to Burkina Faso, Benin, and elsewhere. Ghana, Cote D’Ivoire, and Togo remain vulnerable to violence emanating from the proliferation of jihadist groups in West Africa.


More than 70,000 people have been forced to flee their homes since the beginning of 2019. Terrorist attacks perpetrated by jihadists have increased fourfold over the past two years. Attacks have targeted diverse populations including farmers and herders. Both Christians and Muslims have died from terrorist violence. Between February and May of this year, jihadists attacked both Protestant and Catholic churches, killing priests and parishioners and burning churches to the ground. Attacks continued throughout the summer in both the east and north of Burkina Faso, where militants have relied on a combination of coercion and persuasion to garner support from members of the Fulani ethnic group.

Fighters linked to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and the so-called Islamic State in the Greater Sahara have been fighting for supremacy in various countries throughout West Africa. Their attacks are intended to assert dominance and secure leverage that will help each organization more effectively recruit and raise funds. In addition to battling with Burkinabe troops, militants have attacked a range of soft targets, including schools and hotels. More recently the militants’ strategy has assumed sectarian overtones in an attempt to divide the country and rally support for the jihadists’ objectives. Jihadists have long viewed West Africa as fertile ground for expansion, given the region’s notoriously weak security forces, high levels of corruption, and its delicate demography—several nations in the region sit along the fault line of Christian and Muslim populations.

In addition to France, the United States also maintains a sizable military footprint throughout the Sahel and other parts of Africa. U.S. security cooperation programs and efforts to build partner capacity have helped bolster African militaries and improve counterterrorism capabilities. However, as Washington shifts its emphasis from global counterterrorism operations to great power competition with Russia and China, the United States is drawing down its forces throughout Africa. A reduced American presence could exacerbate security vacuums in failed and weak states in West Africa and turn the region into a safe haven for jihadists, including foreign terrorist fighters from the Islamic State fleeing Iraq and Syria following the collapse of the physical caliphate.

Save Your Seat

Related Articles

How Does the Intelligence Community Adapt in the Age of AI?

OPINION — CIA Director William Burns’ recent remarks to the Ditchley Foundation highlighted three key challenges to American security; (1) strategic [...] More

New Iran Nuclear Site Revealed

Bottom Line up FrontIran’s construction of a new, hardened centrifuge assembly plant further undermines the 2015 multilateral Iran nuclear [...] More

Return of the Quad: The Evolving Security Architecture of the Indo-Pacific

Bottom Line Up FrontThe Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, or Quad, comprising the United States, India, Japan, and Australia, has reemerged in recent [...] More

Gulf Rift Defies Resolution

Bottom Line up FrontThe Trump administration is pushing to resolve the three-year old rift between Qatar and several of its Gulf neighbors before the [...] More

Implications of Iran Arms Ban Expiration

Bottom Line up FrontThe October 2020 expiration of the U.N. ban on arms transfers to and from Iran would have little material impact on the strategic [...] More

Syria Spiraling Downward as Economy Tumbles and Instability Spreads

Bottom Line Up FrontEven as Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad appears closer to prevailing in the country’s nearly decade-long civil war, there are [...] More