In May the commander of the United States Africa Command (Africom) described recent attacks across the region as deeply troubling. He warned that Islamist groups capacity for smuggling and arms trafficking would increase significantly should they gain access to the coast.
In September Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger announced that they were withdrawing from the International Criminal Court calling it an ”instrument of neo-colonialist repression”. (Analysts suggested that the decision might be related to the fact that Russian Leader Vladimir Putin is subject to an ICC arrest warrant).
Mali
In July JNIM carried out attacks against seven towns in the west and north of Mali, overrunning three army barracks in a coordinated operation. According to the government, more than 80 JNIM militants were killed. The attacks followed attacks on an army camp and an airport in Timbuktu. There was also an assault on an army barracks in the centre of the country in which 30 government soldiers lost their lives.
In August JNIM mounted a coordinated operation in central Mali in which they captured military bases in Farabougou and Biriki-Were and shelled a base in Goma-Coura. JNIM is now operational throughout Mali.
The same month at least 50 military personnel were arrested in Mali on suspicion of plotting to overthrow the military government of General Assimi Goita – who himself seized power by military coup in May 2021. According to the government, the French intelligence service was behind the coup attempt.
In September JNIM imposed blockades in western Mali on roads linking Mali to both Senegal and Mauretania, and destroyed trucks transporting fuel from Ivory Coast. They also abducted foreign truck drivers. Local markets were forced to close, fuel prices rose significantly over the following month and power cuts became more frequent in Bamako.
Burkina Faso
In August Burkina Faso expelled the UN’s leading representative in the country after she released a report detailing the recruitment of some 2,000 child soldiers by the government, Islamist forces and the government’s civilian defence force. The following month the regime arrested eight members of a humanitarian NGO accusing them of “spying and treason”.
Niger
In September Human Rights Watch reported Islamist insurgents had “summarily executed” nearly 130 people in a series of attacks in Niger since March – including the murder of more than 70 people praying at a mosque.
Nigeria
In early September the Boko Haram jihadist group killed more than 60 people – including five soldiers – in an attack against a village and nearby army base on the Nigeria-Cameroon border.
Cameroon
Boko Haram insurgents dislodged from northern Nigeria by the Nigerian armed forces have been attacking civilians and stealing livestock.