In an unprecedented public warning in early February, Bernard Emie, the head of France’s Directorate-General for External Security, reported, “From Mali, [Islamist] terrorists have worked on attacks against us, against our partners, and they are thinking about attacks in the region and Europe.” Emie expressed concern that Al-Qaeda is planning to expand its terrorist operations further across West Africa toward the Gulf of Guinea, like reported by jns.org. “These countries are now targeted too,” he warned. “To spread southwards, the terrorists are already financing men who are entering the Ivory Coast or Benin on the borders of Nigeria, Niger, and Chad.”

A senior U.S. military official, General Stephen J. Townsend, reported to Congress last year, “Both al-Qaida and the Islamic State networks are working together to exploit under-governed regions, disenfranchised populations, and porous borders and threaten the security and stability of our African partners, our allies.”

According to Emie, chiefs of the jihadist organizations in the Sahel convened a year ago (February 2020) in central Mali to discuss the preparation of large-scale operations directed against military bases in the region. According to French sources, attending the meeting were Abd el Malek Droukdel, the notorious chief of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQMI), killed by the French troops in June 2020, Iyad Ag Ghaly, head of the GSIM (Groupe de Soutien a l’Islam et aux Musulmans) and his close assistant, Amadou Koufa, chief of the Macina Battalion (a jihadist group active in West Africa between Senegal and Nigeria). Since Droukdel’s death, Ag Ghaly has become the chief strategist of Al-Qaeda in the Sahel. During this meeting, Emie reported, the jihadist leaders decided to expand their groups’ presence to the countries of the Gulf of Guinea. Fighters were also sent to the Ivory Coast, Benin, Nigeria, Niger and Chad.

According to the French intelligence sources, the objective of these jihadists is to pursue Al-Qaeda’s goals to destabilize the targeted regimes by committing terrorist attacks in general, and in Europe in particular. The penetration of the violent extremist organizations (VEOs) into the Sahel area, combined with the presence of the Shabab jihadists in the eastern end of the African continent and the gradual takeover by jihadists and the Islamic State fighters of the oil and gas-rich Cabo Delgado area in northern Mozambique have raised an alert among the Western and African intelligence agencies. The security officials follow closely and with great concern the continuous advance of the jihadists in those areas and their capture of huge swaths of land where the central governments were never present.

A humanitarian catastrophe
The widespread warfare and even massacres across Africa are creating a mammoth refugee and hunger calamity. Last year, the United Nations Secretary-General’s Special Representative to the region reported that “in Burkina Faso alone, as of June 2020, 921,000 people have been forced to flee … In Mali, nearly 240,000 people are internally displaced—54 percent of them women—while in Niger, 489,000 people were forced to flee, including Nigerian and Malian refugees.” The situation in Nigeria is also critical, where “8.7 million people will require urgent assistance,” according to the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.

The jihadist presence in Africa is not a new phenomenon. Nigeria has been fighting Boko Haram (which expressed its allegiance to Islamic State), since the 1990s. However, the fact that neither Nigeria nor any other country targeted by the jihadists has succeeded in quashing their presence and neutralizing their influence has encouraged the extremists to penetrate shaky and unstable regimes hit by internal strife, poverty and ethnic confrontations.

Most of those jihadist groups are the offspring of either the Islamic State or of the Al-Qaeda organizations and have been active in the Sahel areas for many years: from the northern part of Mali, the eastern parts of Mauritania, Morocco and the southern parts of Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Chad. The VEOs have succeeded in creating a vast web, interconnecting with other jihadist organizations, and extending their presence and destructive activities to Burkina Faso, Benin, the Central African Republic, the Ivory Coast and Senegal. They have now reached the eastern parts of Africa (Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Somalia, and Mozambique), thus creating a jihadist belt that begins on the shores of the Atlantic Ocean and reaches the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean.

The presence of the extremist groups in the “jihadist belt” has destabilized the area and has had a crucial impact on the willingness of outside investors to risk huge sums in those regions at risk. The United States and France’s military presence, together with local allies of the G5 (Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso and Chad), has succeeded in limiting the damage perpetrated by the jihadist organizations but has failed to eradicate the phenomenon.

“We also see a serious regional threat from violent extremist organizations emanating from the Sahel,” warned Gen. Townsend, head of the U.S. Army’s AFRICOM. “Security is deteriorating rapidly, with a 250% increase in VEO violence since 2018 in Burkina Faso, Mali, and western Niger. Having quickly spread from northern Mali, al-Qaida’s JNIM, ISIS-aligned groups, and other VEOs are now operating throughout the Sahel region.” Nevertheless, France’s President Emmanuel Macron is considering a reduction of the French military force of 5,100 in the Sahel states.

The involvement of Western powers in the fight against jihadism is meant primarily to fight the terrorists in their own territory in the hope that it will also thwart terrorism outside Africa. However, it is unclear if this method actually protects Europe, in particular, as many attacks there have been carried out by home-grown jihadists affiliated with the Islamic State.

On the other hand, it is also clear that ending the West’s war in Africa against jihadism would prove fatal to shaky regimes and open the doors to terrorist activities in Europe. The example of thousands of brainwashed Europeans who volunteered to join the ranks of the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria proves that there is fertile ground in Europe to sow jihadist activity exported from Africa.

Today, it is obvious that the declaration of victory against the Islamic State was premature. “The international community is not making durable progress in containing priority VEOs in Africa,” warned Townsend.

Even though beaten and left without its territorial base following its defeat by the coalition forces in 2017, Islamic State is still very much alive and, from time to time, reminds all concerned of that fact.

The United States Defense Department has announced that the guided-missile destroyer USS Winston S. Churchill intercepted and seized a large shipment of weapons aboard two dhows during maritime security operations in the Indian Ocean off the coast of Somalia.

According to news published by the Defense Visual Information Distribution Service, the seized weapons consist of consisted of thousands of AK-47 assault rifles, light machine guns, heavy sniper rifles, rocket-propelled grenade launchers, and crew-served weapons.

Other components taken included barrels, stocks, optical scopes, and other weapon systems.“We are proud of the combined efforts of the AIT and Churchill crew members for executing dynamic and demanding boardings,” said Lt. Travis Dopp, Assistant Advanced Interdiction Team Leader aboard Churchill, and added, “We are proud to have a positive impact on the safety and security of coalition forces by interdicting shipments of lethal aid.”

According to the US military, the source of the weapons and their intended recipients is currently unknown.

Somalia is in a tense political period whereby the incumbent President, Mr. Mohamed Abdillahi Farmajo’s term ended in February and so far no date has been set for elections due to disagreements between the Federal Government and member states. Jubaland, and Puntland, and opposition candidates have stated that they no longer recognize Mr. Farmajo as President.

Efforts by the international community to broker a deal between the parties have failed.

So far, the Federal Government has insisted through various spokesmen that it is still legitimate despite its mandate ending on February 8th.

It is unclear if the seized weapons belong to various factions facing off in Somalia or possibly the Al-Shabaab terror network which has been resurgent in the Horn of Africa due to the political turmoil in Somalia.

Over 140 houses were reportedly razed by Boko Haram militants in Egiri, Zira 1 and 2 villages of Biu Local Government Area of Borno state in northeast Nigeria, like reported by dailypost.ng.

The militants carted away foodstuff and livestock, after displacing hundreds of people from the three settlements.

Biu is located in the southern flank of Borno about 187km from Maiduguri, the state capital.

Zira village where the incident took place is 5km away from Gur village which was attacked last Friday, leaving four persons dead.

Zira I and Gur community located North West of Buratai, the home town of the immediate past Chief of Army Staff, General T.Y Buratai, but poor telecommunication services delayed information from reaching people about the latest attacks.

A resident of Zira community, who fled and now taking refuge in Biu town, Ali Yusuf, told newsmen that, the attack happened on Sunday at about 7pm.

Yusuf said, “Luckily, almost all residents had fled out of the town, and the insurgents who came through Garin Mallam Village first attacked Egiri before proceeding to Zira I and II, as they wreck havoc without confrontation.”

Yusuf, however, said no life was lost as the insurgents met the all affected villages deserted, but notwithstanding, the attackers set ablaze about 20 houses in Egiri, 50 houses in Zira I and 75 others in Zira II.

“We are really terrified with the latest attacks by insurgents in our hitherto peaceful communities.

“Since the former Chief of Army Staff, General Yusuf Tukur Buratai bowed out of service; most surrounding villages of Buratai have been experiencing series of Boko Haram attacks without confrontation by security operatives.

“Just last Friday, armed insurgents invaded our neighbouring community of Gur and killed four persons and destroy properties. Two days after, another group of insurgents invaded our own villages of Egiri, Zira I & II and set ablaze over 90% of residential buildings.

“As it is, some of us took liver and went back to our affected communities on Monday, although, no life was lost as the insurgents met the affected villages deserted, but notwithstanding, the attackers set ablaze about 20 houses in Egiri, 50 houses in Zira I and 75 others in Zira II.

“We were lucky to have gotten information about the impending attacks, so we quickly mobilized our family members including women and children and fled before the insurgents stormed these communities,” he said.

He appealed to government and other security agencies to come to their aid, as most of them are displaced with no means of livelihood.

Efforts to get confirmation from the Police Public Relations Officer, DSP Edet Okon, did not yield any result.

Troops of 121 and 151 Battalions of Nigerian Army, Operation Tura Takaibango (OTT), have neutralised two Boko Haram commanders in the Pulka/Bama axis of Borno State, like reported by guardian.ng.

The commanders, who were on the army watch list, include Abul-Bas and Ibn Habib were killed while crossing the Guja and Vuria settlements at the bank junction along Gwoza/Bama road.

Director, Army Public Relations, Brig-Gen. Mohammed Yerima, disclosed yesterday in Maiduguri that troops engaged the terrorists on February 9, 2021 at a crossing point of two settlements in the Pulka/Banki junction.

“During the forest clearance operations, three insurgents were killed,” he said, noting that two of them were the most wanted commanders of the Abubakar Shekau faction of Boko Haram.

According to him, the troops also recovered three General Purpose Machine Guns (GPMGs), seven AK-47 rifles and a belt containing 446 rounds of 7.62mm ammunition.

He added that a motorcycle and mobile phone were also recovered in the clearance operations.

On neutralised commanders, he said: “Abul-Bas was second in command to Abu Fatima, while Ibn Habib was the Boko Haram commander in charge of Njimia and Parisu camps in Sambisa Forest.”

Their neutralisation has dealt a big blow on the operations of the terrorists and boosted the morale of troops in the counter-terrorism operation in the forest, he noted.

The Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Maj-Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru, has commended the troops for the feat and other successes recorded in the theatre of war.

He, therefore, charged them to intensify the aggressive clearance operation, adding: “The remnants of terrorists and their collaborators should be cleared.”

In the same vein, the military foiled an ambush by armed bandits in Kaduna, and killed many of them during a gun battle.

The Director of Public Relations and Information, AVM Ibikunle Daramola, stated at the weekend that the troops of 271 Nigerian Air Force (NAF) Detachment foiled the ambush set up by a group of over 100 armed bandits at Ungwan Laya near Birnin Gwari in Kaduna State.

He said: “The gallant troops were able to fight their way through the ambush, killing dozens of bandits in the process.

“Unfortunately, some NAF personnel paid the supreme price during the operation, while a few others sustained varying degrees of injuries. The injured personnel are receiving treatment at the NAF Hospital in Kaduna.”

According to the statement, the Chief of Air Staff (CAS), AVM Isiaka Amao, on behalf all officers, airmen, airwomen and civilian staff of the NAF, commiserated with the families of the fallen heroes and prayed God to grant their souls peaceful repose.

“The CAS, who visited the injured personnel in the hospital this evening, has urged all NAF personnel to remain resolute and continue to work assiduously, in synergy with sister services and other security agencies, to rid the North West of all criminal elements.”

Some 20 UN peacekeepers serving with the UN Stabilization Mission in Mali, MINUSMA, were injured on Wednesday, after their temporary base came under attack in the restive central region of the country, like reported by northafricapost.com.

In a statement, MINUSMA said that the ‘blue helmets’ under fire were able to repel the attackers, who fled after delivering a “robust response”.

The base is located in an area of high jihadist activity, near Kéréna, in the vicinity of Douentza where the peacekeepers have been carrying out numerous security operations in recent months.

UN mission spokesman Olivier Salgado announced that “peacekeepers came under direct and indirect fire from unknown assailants at around 7:00 a.m. local time”.

According to various sources, the wounded are part of the Togolese MINUSMA contingent and some of them are seriously injured.

The MINUSMA statement indicates that the “forceful response” of their soldiers managed to repel the assault and forced the assailants to flee, leaving no casualties among the enemy.

Although the perpetrators of the attack are unknown, the modus operandi appears similar to that used by the Defense of Islam and Muslims Group (Jnim in Arabic), a staunch ally of the Al-Qaeda terrorist group.

According to Spanish news outlet atalayar.com, last Sunday, this affiliate once again called on its troops to focus their attacks on Chadian MINUSMA soldiers. Moreover, they claim that their attacks on peacekeepers occur almost daily and that the number of casualties is much higher than official sources report.

The MINUSMA mission has become the deadliest mission in the world, according to the UN itself. Five peacekeepers died in one week during attacks in mid-January. Since 2014, date of the mission creation, 225 people have been killed by the continuous attacks orchestrated by the various jihadist groups in the region. They often use booby traps, bombings of their barracks or road ambushes.

Mali, like the other regions of the Sahel – a transitional zone spanning the space between the Sahara Desert in the north and the Sudanese savannah in the south – has seen a worrying increase in the number of attacks by both Al-Qaeda affiliates and the self-styled Islamic State, which has further increased inter-communal violence and the displacement of tens of thousands of people.

The Malian Government has been seeking to restore stability and rebuild the volatile country’s institutions following a series of setbacks since early 2012 that fractured the country, including a failed coup d’état, renewed fighting between Government forces and Tuareg rebels, and the short-lived seizure of its northern territory by radical extremists.

Last year military leaders staged a coup, and in September, agreed to establish a transitional Government for a period of 18 months, promising fresh elections and a return to civilian rule.

The Nigerian military is currently working with forces from neighboring Cameroon to clear Boko Haram terrorists from the country’s volatile northeast region, the country’s new army chief said Monday, like reported by aa.com.tr.

“We are working in tandem with forces from Cameroon to annihilate Boko Haram,” Gen. Ibrahim Attahiru told journalists during an operational visit to troops in northeast Borno State, the heartland of over a decade of terror attacks.

He said his visit, the first since his appointment as army chief on January 26, was to receive briefs from army commanders in the theatre of operations against terrorists.

He disclosed forces from Chad will also be brought into the operation. He said it was a new operational strategy to end terror attacks in the area.

Nigeria shares regional borders with Cameroon, Chad, and Niger.

A roadside bomb went off just outside the central Somalia town of Dhusamareeb on Sunday, killing 12 agents working for the National Intelligence and Security Agency, police said.

Those killed included Abdirashid Abdunur, the head of the intelligence agency in Dhusamareeb, police officer Mohamed Ahmed said.

The al-Qaeda-linked armed group, al-Shabab, claimed responsibility for the attack.

Political leaders have been meeting in Dhusamareeb, a town about 510 kilometres (317 miles) north of the capital Mogadishu, to try to resolve a dispute over how to hold an election due on Monday.

A deal on how to choose a new president on Monday has been elusive so far, threatening to unleash more political turmoil.

Somalia had initially aimed to hold its first direct election in more than 30 years but delays in preparations, and the government’s inability to rein in daily attacks by al-Shabab, meant switching to an indirect vote, with elders picking legislators who would choose a president.

However, regional authorities in at least two of Somalia’s five federal states, Puntland and Jubbaland, oppose holding the election for now.

Islamic terrorists are launching violent attacks against people in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) in Central Africa as innocent men, women, and children are being killed almost daily. In the past month, more than 100 people were murdered, and a majority of them were reportedly Christians, like reported by cbn.com

Open Doors. reports that around 46 people belonging to the Pygmy ethnic group were killed on Jan. 14 by extremists who are believed to be associated with the Allied Democratic Forces.

Members of this ethnic group face widespread persecution and discrimination.

And on Jan. 4, close to 22 civilians were killed during a raid on the village of Mwenda, in the Beni region. Before that, Allied Democratic Forces killed 25 people in the village of Tingwe, then used guns and machetes to brutally murder 17 nearby villagers.

“These predominantly Christian communities are attacked by an Islamic extremist group with a clear Islamic expansionist agenda,” said Open Doors spokesperson Illia Djadi.

“It is a reminder of what is happening in other parts of the central Sahel region – groups like Boko Haram in northeast Nigeria, for example. The ideology, the agenda of establishing a ‘caliphate’ in the region, and the way they operate is the same, and we can see how they afflict terrible suffering on innocent people,” Djadi said.

According to Open Doors, Allied Democratic Forces (ADF) formed in 1996 in western Uganda with the purpose of establishing an Islamic state. It’s only one of the many terrorist groups that persecute people across the eastern provinces of DRC.

“We need to pay attention to these events because what is happening in eastern DRC, the killing of innocent civilians on an almost daily basis, is an underreported tragedy,” said Djadi. “We want to raise the alarm and we urgently call on the national government and the international community to do everything they can to protect innocent lives and to restore peace in this troubled region.”

In 2019, the Congolese army initiated a large-scale effort to take down ADF but the terrorists left their camps, broke off into smaller groups, and waged war against civilians.

Al Jazeera reported last October that 21 people were killed in the DRC, 15 of them women, at the hands of ADF.

And that same month, the militants killed 19 people in the village of Baeti, set fire to the village’s church, and burnt down 40 homes.

“During the month of October, the ADF has targeted Christian churches. This is not insignificant,” said local resident Omar Kavota.

DRC ranked 40th on the Open Doors World Watch List 2021 of countries where Christians suffer the most persecution.

At least eight people, including soldiers, were killed and several others wounded when terrorists ambushed military personnel in Lower Shabelle region of Somalia on Tuesday, an official said according to aa.com.tr.

The ambush took place in the vicinity of Doonka, 40 kilometers (24 miles) southwest of Mogadishu. The al-Shabaab militant group claimed responsibility.

Abshir Mohamed, a police official in the region, told Anadolu Agency by phone that the military personnel were targeted while escorting vehicles carrying goods to the capital.

He said six soldiers and two drivers were killed in the attack, adding that the injured were taken to Afoye, a nearby town, for treatment.

The al-Qaeda affiliated group also claimed attacking Ethiopian forces serving under African Union Mission in the country’s southwestern region of Bakol, killing at least four soldiers.

Nine people were killed when Al Shabab extremists attacked a hotel in Mogadishu on Sunday. The Al Qaeda-linked group started its attack with a car bomb at the entrance of the Hotel Afrik in the centre of the Somalian capital, like reported by thenationalnews.com.

Gunmen then stormed the hotel, exchanging fire with security personnel. “There was another blast after the first big one,” said witness Osman Saadaq.

Al Shabab claimed responsibility in a brief statement. “The mujahideen stormed in an ongoing operation inside Hotel Afrik where members of the apostate team are stationed,” the extremists said.

The hotel is often used by Somali officials, members of the security forces and community leaders. Police spokesman Sadik Dudishe said that officers “immediately entered the building” at the start of the attack, rescuing most of those inside.

AFP reported that Somali soldiers quickly surrounded the hotel. Witnesses said they could still hear sporadic gunfire and explosions for some time after the attack began.

Al Shabab has been waging a violent insurgency across the Horn of Africa country seeking to unseat the internationally backed government in Mogadishu.

They were driven out of Mogadishu by government forces backed by 20,000 African Union peacekeepers in 2011.

But the group still controls territory outside the cities, from where they launch attacks against government targets, as well as occasionally crossing the border to carry out raids in Kenya. Al Shabab has intensified its attacks in Kenya in recent years, including several major assaults as far as the capital, Nairobi, which killed nearly 300 people.

Somalia was scheduled to hold indirect parliamentary and presidential elections before February 8, but the process was derailed by political disagreements between the central government in Mogadishu and federal states.