Ivory Coast has suffered its first Islamist terrorist attack since 2016, with at least 10 dead on the border with Burkina Faso.

Those deaths follow efforts to purge an Islamist presence in the border region.

Also, in several countires there are calls for statues commemorating slave traders to be taken down.

We’ve put together some reactions from the streets of Dakar, Kinshasa, Ouagadougou and Pretoria.

And overfishing by foreign trawlers has left many coastal communities in Senegal struggling to survive, but now dozens of mostly Chinese ships have been banned from Senegal’s waters.

Somali National Army (SNA) killed 37 Al-Shabaab extremists in a fierce fight in the outskirts of Hudur town in the southern region of Bakol, officials confirmed on Sunday.

Odawa Yusuf Rage, commander of SNA told journalists that the clashes started after government forces got intelligence of the militants’ presence in the area and conducted operations.

“Our forces inflicted severe casualties on the militants, killing 37 of them, including the militants’ leader in Hudur area,” Rage said, adding that the army also recovered weapons from the militants.

Locals told Xinhua there was an intense fight in Abal village in the outskirts of Hudur town which caused casualties from the warring sides and the residents.

On May 27, Somali forces backed by the Southwestern State army killed six Al-Shabaab extremists in another operation in Dinsor town in the southern region of Bay.

Government forces have intensified operations against Al-Shabaab extremists in the southern regions, but the militants still hold swathes of rural areas in those regions conducting ambushes and planting land mines.

Islamist militants killed dozens of people in three separate attacks in Burkina Faso, including a raid on a cattle market in the east of the country, marking a fresh surge in jihadist violence in one weekend.

Islamist militants killed dozens of people in three separate attacks in Burkina Faso, including a raid on a cattle market in the east of the country, marking a fresh surge in jihadist violence in one weekend.

Gunmen on motorbikes fired into the market in Kompiembiga on Saturday, killing at least 25 people, while seven paramilitary police and five civilians died when gunmen attacked a humanitarian convoy returning from the town of Foube, about 170 kilometers (106 miles) north of the capital, Ouagadougou, according to a government statement Sunday.

The West African nation has struggled to quash an Islamist insurgency that’s forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes. The violence has led in turn to deadly inter-communal clashes.

On Friday, at least 15 people were killed in a raid near the border with Mali, from which a range of jihadist groups have expanded their operations since 2012. The attacks come days after French special forces known as Barkhane deployed a jet fighter and drones in the border area between Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, killing “several terrorists” and seizing weapons, according to a French defense ministry statement.

fired into the market in Kompiembiga on Saturday, killing at least 25 people, while seven paramilitary police and five civilians died when gunmen attacked a humanitarian convoy returning from the town of Foube, about 170 kilometers (106 miles) north of the capital, Ouagadougou, according to a government statement Sunday.

The West African nation has struggled to quash an Islamist insurgency that’s forced hundreds of thousands of people to flee their homes. The violence has led in turn to deadly inter-communal clashes.

On Friday, at least 15 people were killed in a raid near the border with Mali, from which a range of jihadist groups have expanded their operations since 2012. The attacks come days after French special forces known as Barkhane deployed a jet fighter and drones in the border area between Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, killing “several terrorists” and seizing weapons, according to a French defense ministry statement.

In a makeshift bunker of sacks of rice beneath a tree, heavily-armed Togolese soldiers keep watch over villagers coming and going on foot or bike across the border with Burkina Faso, like reported by thenational.ae.

Only a dry river bed separates the two West African countries.

In surrounding fields, peasant farmers are bent silhouettes, watering the sorghum and maize seeds sown before the arrival of the first rains.

Soon, clouds will chase away the fine dust of the harmattan, the choking desert wind that each year sweeps southwards off the Sahara.

Nothing dramatic, or so it would seem, ever happens at Yemboate, in Togo’s far north.

Yet less than 30 kilometres away, over the border in eastern Burkina Faso, extremists and militia groups have imposed their own brutal law.

Those policemen, doctors and teachers who have not fled are being hunted down and butchered.

“When I was small, we spent our time swimming in the river,” said Abdoulaye Mossi, a farmer, leaning on his bike with a hoe.

The arid channel separates his peaceful village of cob huts from a Burkinabe village on the other side.

“Fear rules today,” he said.

But fear does not stop people crossing between the two countries, especially on Tuesday’s market day, when they sell crops and cattle.

The armed movements are “never far away”, said Mr Mossi, part of whose family lives in Burkina Faso.

“They often come to have their motorbikes repaired. They will never tell you who the jihadists are, but we know.”

The Togolese soldiers mount checkpoints and mobile patrols of the countless cross-border tracks through the bush that enable militants on motorbikes to blend into the civilian population.

After the fall of Burkinabe president Blaise Compaore in 2014, Togo’s northern neighbour fell prey to the chaos from extremists that began in neighbouring Mali, fanned by the collapse of Libya.

Today, militants affiliated to Al Qaeda and ISIS threaten to pursue their expansion southwards in countries along the Gulf of Guinea coast – Benin, Ghana and Ivory Coast, as well as Togo.

A year ago Benin witnessed the kidnapping of two French tourists and the murder of their guide in the Pendjari National Park.

In February, militants also attacked a police station near the border with Burkina Faso.

In Ivory Coast, extremist gunmen attacked the Grand-Bassam beach resort in 2016, leaving 19 people dead.

Another extremist group has been hiding in the Comoe national park in northern Ivory Coast for the past eight months after being pursued by Burkinabe troops.

In Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, the number of clashes and attacks reached unprecedented levels last year. The coronavirus pandemic has inspired no ceasefires.

According to local and foreign security sources, many parts of rural Ivory Coast, Togo and Benin have seen the awakening of “sleeper cells” – people indoctrinated and trained to encourage ever more radical peaching in mosques and Quranic schools.

“The terrorist threat is real and the pressure is very strong … we feel it a little more with each day,” Togolese President Faure Gnassingbe told AFP in February, while campaigning for re-election in Dapaong, the main northern town.

Flying by helicopter from the capital Lome, 650km to the south, the head of state touched down in what has become a “red zone” for tourists, missionaries and foreign aid personnel, whose work was cut short by a Spanish priest’s murder at a Burkinabe customs post.

Togo has been spared big attacks so far, but its territory has been infiltrated and the armed forces are racing to ready for the worst.

According to confidential military documents seen by AFP, almost 700 Togolese soldiers are deployed in the northernmost Savanes region on the border with Burkina Faso, engaged in Operation Koundjoare launched in 2018.

They keep guard at an invisible border of about 100 km, with Ghana to the west and Benin to the east.

The territory serves highway robbers and smugglers of all sorts of contraband – ivory, weapons, drugs and, above all, gold, one of the main resources of the region.

In these remote areas far from coastal towns and economically developed zones, the trappings of state are mostly absent, so wildlife parks and dense forests have become a sanctuary for the extremists.

Less than 30km from the Togo border, a much feared group has seized control in Burkina Faso’s Pama forest reserve.

For two years, it has launched violent raids against travellers and security forces alike.

The militants – linked to the Ansarul Islam movement accused of terrorising northern Burkina Faso and central Mali – are behind the kidnapping of several westerners in recent years, according to French security sources.

“The north of Togo can allow jihadists to rest up after long campaigns, or to fall back by merging into the population when pressure from the other side is too strong,” one of the sources said.

Where deep poverty prevails, winning villagers’ goodwill is indispensable in the fight against extremists.

The army provides free medical consultations, repairs damaged schools and builds wells.

“Our passage must be visible,” Mr Gnassingbe declared in Dapaong, warning the military against both “bullying” and “petty corruption”.

Elected mayors and district administrators work hand in hand with religious leaders and traditional chiefs to obtain and pass on information.

Togolese authorities count on intelligence services equipped and trained by powers such as Israel, with whom Gnassingbe Eyadema, the president’s father and political predecessor who ruled for 38 years, nurtured close ties.

An intelligence network intercepting communications and putting spies on buses has helped to “dismantle” several “terrorist cells”, with dozens of arrests, according to the government.

Authorities claim that all those picked up are foreigners, mostly Burkinabes, who are extradited to their countries of origin.

The armed forces of Togo, Benin, Ivory Coast and Ghana have taken part in joint military operations with Burkina Faso since 2017.

“Co-operation is undermined by a culture of distrust between states,” said Antonin Tisseron, an associate researcher with the Institut Thomas More, a conservative think tank.

Togo relies on an experienced army, which has taken part in several United Nations peacekeeping operations.

Most recruits are from the Kabye ethnic group in the north, which has served the ruling dynasty for more than half a century.

However, many people fear that the “struggle against terrorism” will also serve to silence critics of 53-year-old president.

In power since 2005, Mr Gnassingbe has solid support from international partners led by France, despite criticism by human rights organisations of repeated abuse of political foes and activists.

Togo came through a serious political crisis in 2017 and 2018, with mass demonstrations calling on the president to resign, particularly in the predominantly Muslim centre of the country.

Security forces cracked down hard.

“The countries of the Gulf of Guinea present many internal weaknesses,” Mr Tisseron said.

“Poverty, the absence of jobs and prospects, the repression of all forms of social protest and the stigmatisation of Muslims create a breeding ground where jihadists can thrive.”

Jihadists tend to infiltrate communities in stages, starting with charitable works financed by Islamic organisations abroad.

The newcomers preach a more radical form of Islam than the reputedly moderate faith long practised by about a quarter of the Togolese population and strictly monitored by the state.

“It begins with ‘raising awareness’ among the masses, without open confrontation with the authorities,” said a western security source.

“Once they feel strong enough, they kill the moderate preachers and then they attack police and gendarmerie posts.”

Last year, a non-governmental organisation unknown to local Muslim authorities appeared in Dapaong, where Maman Amadou, the imam of the central mosque, is one of the rare religious leaders openly to challenge extremism.

“They started to preach radical Islam in about 15 villages and to build mosques. They even handed out money and motorbikes to young people. The people listened to them,” Mr Amadou said.

“We didn’t know them and they answered none of our summons. We ended up alerting the authorities.”

Under pressure, the organisation left town, added the imam, saying he had no more idea where they went than where they came from. “We never heard any more of them.”

Jihadists killed seven soldiers in attacks in northeast Nigeria, including an assault on a town where schoolgirls were abducted en masse two years ago, military sources and residents said on Tuesday according to news24.com.

The attacks on Monday came days before the end of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, when jihadists who have waged a 10-year insurgency usually ramp up their deadly assaults in the region.

In one assault on the town of Dapchi fighters believed to be from an Islamic State group affiliate killed one soldier and wounded three while looting shops and torching the house of a local leader, sources told AFP.

Dapchi was the scene of the abduction of more than 100 schoolgirls by the Islamic State West Afria Provine (ISWAP) in February 2018.

The girls were later released although the only Christian among them is still being held by the group after she reportedly refused to renounce her faith.

Factions

In a second attack on Monday near the village of Maza, fighters killed six soldiers after opening fire on a military convoy that had been hit by a landmine, two security personnel said.

The decade-long conflict in northeast Nigeria has claimed over 36 000 lives and displaced some two million people.

The jihadists have splintered into factions. In 2016, the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) broke from the main Boko Haram group, led by Abubakar Shekau.

In another incident on Monday, two female suicide bombers suspected to have been sent by Shekau’s loyalists killed two people in the town of Konduga, security sources and residents said.

The bombers sneaked into the town, 38km from regional capital Maiduguri and detonated their explosives as a government-backed anti-jihadist militia member was passing on a bicycle.

Jihadists also stormed the town village of Kautikeri and beheaded a local resident and abducted a herder along with 150 of his cattle, a local leader said.

Nigerian Army troops on Sunday killed 20 Boko Haram and Islamic State of West African Province, (ISWAP) terrorists at the north west of Baga town in Borno, like reported by guardian.ng.

Maj.-Gen. John Enenche, the Coordinator of Defence Media Operations, Defence Headquarters, disclosed this in a statement on Monday in Abuja.

Enenche said the troops of 130 Battalion with the support of the Army Super Camp, Baga, recorded the success in a decisive intercept offensive operation.

He disclosed that the terrorists, who were armed with mortars, rocket propelled grenades and small arms were heading to attack villages surrounding Baga when the troops attacked their convoy with overwhelming fire power.

According to him, the troops captured six AK 47 Rifles, 520 rounds of 7.62mm special ammunition and five 36 hand grenades.

“However, nine of our gallant soldiers were wounded in action with no loss of life.

“The wounded were evacuated to Sector 3 hospital for treatment.

“The Chief of Army Staff, Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, commends the gallant troops for their professionalism and directs them to remain resolute toward eradicating the criminals from the North East,” he said.

A series of attacks at the hands of Islamic militants has caused devastation across Kaduna state, Nigeria. In the latest assault, five people were killed when a group of Fulani herdsmen stormed Makyali village in Kajuru Local Government Area (LGA) in the early hours of Thursday morning, like reported by premierchristian.news.

The attack occurred just hours after Fulani fighters murdered a man and his wife in Katul village the previous evening. Both villages are located along the Kaduna-Kachia road and the attacks occurred despite the national Covid-19 lockdown and an increased military presence in the area.

Another person, 53-year-old Bomboi Abinfada, was killed on 12th May during an attack on Idanu-Doka village at around 4pm. The attacks took place on the same day that victims of an armed assault by Fulani assailants on the Gona Rogo community were buried in a mass grave.

According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), on 11th May another attack left seventeen people dead; six others were injured, food stores were destroyed and several homes were burnt during an attack on the Baptist community that began around 11.30pm. The entire family of a 40-year-old man named Jonathan Yakubu was hacked to death along with his wife Sheba Yakubu, 32, and their children Patience, 13, Revelation, 6, and Rejoice, 4. Seven of the victims were minors.

The attacks are the latest in a string of murderous actions against the Christian community who reside in a part of Kaduna state that has been besieged by armed assailants of Fulani origin.

According to Christian Solidarity Worldwide, between the time a total lockdown came into effect on 25th March and the morning of 12th May, 38 people had been killed and around 133 houses destroyed.

CSW’s chief executive Mervyn Thomas said: “We condemn these deplorable acts of violence against innocent civilians, and are deeply perplexed they continue to occur, even in an area where security is already deployed. Almost daily we receive reports of horrific armed assaults on vulnerable Christian communities which appear to remain unaddressed.

“The impunity with which perpetrators are able to launch these attacks, is unacceptable…We call on the authorities both at state and federal levels to take visible and immediate steps to protect these communities and to pursue, disarm, arrest and prosecute the assailants.

“These attacks, which also occur in the south of the country, gravely threaten the unity and security of this multi faith and multi-ethnic nation at a time when Nigeria is already dealing with terrorist insurgencies, the collapsing oil price and the fall out of the Covid-19 pandemic. If left unaddressed, they could eventually spark a conflagration that will be extremely difficult to contain.”

The Somali National Army (SNA) on Wednesday killed six Al-Shabaab militants in an operation in the southern region of Lower Shabelle, a military officer confirmed, like reported by newsaf.cgtn.com.

Abdi Hamid Mohamed Dirir, commander of the Somali infantry division told reporters that SNA conducted a sting operation in villages between Jannale and Qoryoley towns and inflicted casualties on the militants.

“We got intelligence of the militants’presence in the area and our forces advanced towards the area. There was a confrontation between the army and the militants, we overpowered them killing six of them,” Dirir said.

He added that one of those killed in the operation was Abdi Muhsin Hussein, a senior Al-Shabaab fighter.

“Our forces are now controlling the area and the militants have fled towards the forest,” he said.

Locals said the government army attacked Al-Shabaab members in Bulla Sheikh village, prompting exchange gunfire between the two sides.

“There was an exchange of fire between the army and the militants, but the forces are now in the town and the militants were chased out,” Hindi Aden, a resident said.

The latest operation comes barely three days after Somali forces killed three Al-Shabaab militants including a foreign operator from Mali in another operation in the outskirt of Bu’ale town in the country’s southern region of Middle Juba.

Somali forces have intensified operations against Al-Shabaab extremists in southern regions, but the militants still hold swathes of rural areas in those regions conducting ambushes and planting land mines.

West Africa’s Sahel region has become the latest scene of jihadist in-fighting, after Islamic State group (IS) revealed it is engaged in fierce clashes with al-Qaeda militants in Mali and Burkina Faso, like reported by bbc.com.

IS made the revelation on 7 May in a detailed report in its weekly newspaper al-Naba.

It blamed al-Qaeda’s Sahel affiliate, Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), for starting the fight and mobilising large forces to attack IS positions in the two countries.

The scenario is familiar. IS and al-Qaeda affiliates have already locked horns in other jihadists hotspots, such as Yemen, Somali and Syria, competing for influence, recruits and resources.

The IS article contradicts mainstream reports from earlier this year that suggested the two groups were collaborating in the region.

The in-fighting could have an impact on jihadist operations against local and foreign troops in the Sahel, where both groups have significantly stepped up attacks since last year.

What did IS say?
In its report, IS decried recent al-Qaeda attacks on IS militants in Mali and Burkina Faso, where both groups are active.

It said JNIM, on the orders of its leaders Iyad Ag Ghaly and Amadou Koufa, had amassed big forces to target IS on a number of occasions in both countries since April.

It also complained that JNIM was blocking fuel supplies from reaching IS militants and detaining locals suspected of supporting IS.

This JNIM move, IS said, coincides with an upscale in operations against IS by regional African and French troops in the Sahel.

JNIM, IS claimed, used these conditions as an opportunity to target IS at this particular time.

It alleged that IS was the only obstacle facing JNIM today, since the latter has agreed to hold talks with the Mali government and has allegedly made peace with all pro and anti government forces and tribes in northern Mali, including “the pagan” Dogon self-defence militias.

IS has previously sought to use JNIM’s willingness to open dialogue with Malian authorities as a means to undermine the al-Qaeda group’s jihadist credentials.

Why now?
It is not clear why IS and JNIM have not publicly discussed the clashes until this latest IS report, especially given that, according to IS, there has been heavy fighting since 17 April.

The IS revelation, however, follows an unverified statement attributed to JNIM and shared online on 5 May by unofficial jihadist accounts, in which the al-Qaeda group firmly rejected a purported IS ceasefire proposal.

If the statement is authentic, it may explain why IS decided to go public with the story now.

The alleged JNIM statement came in response to an unverified audio message shared online in April and attributed to an IS Mali commander identified as Abdel Hakim al-Sahraoui. The purported IS message proposed a truce if JNIM agreed to pay blood money for slain IS fighters and to release IS prisoners.

Neither group has officially referred to the unverified messages attributed to them.

The latest IS revelation finally confirms what local media have been reporting for weeks regarding hostilities between the two groups in Mali and Burkina Faso.

It also puts to rest mainstream media reports citing military officials earlier in the year that warned that IS and JNIM were collaborating and that this increased the jihadist threat in the Sahel. These reports, however, were never supported by messaging or propaganda from either group.

Al-Qaeda-IS rivalry

The IS-JNIM clashes are the latest episode in years of in-fighting between IS and al-Qaeda.

The reasons are similar: IS accuses al-Qaeda of going soft and deviating from core jihadist principles, while al-Qaeda portrays IS members as blood-thirsty ultra-extremists who violate Sharia law and give “the mujahidin” a bad name.

To reiterate its stance against al-Qaeda, IS recently put out a lengthy “documentary” video listing all the reasons that allegedly made al-Qaeda and its branches, including JNIM, “apostates”. The group used the video to urge al-Qaeda members to defect to IS.

IS’s latest complaint about coming under heavy attack from JNIM in Mali and Burkina Faso is reminiscent of its claims in November 2018 bemoaning al-Shabab attacks on its positions in Somalia. This came shortly before the two engaged in active fighting and threatened to wipe each other out.

The latest Sahel fighting also coincides with heightened IS rhetoric against al-Qaeda’s branch in Yemen, AQAP. The two groups have been fighting since July 2018.

In both Mali and Yemen, IS accuses its al-Qaeda rivals of secretly collaborating with either “secular” or government-linked forces and militias to fight IS.

IS is also engaged in fighting against the Taliban in Afghanistan. IS has used the Taliban peace talks with the US, and JNIM’s readiness to talk to the Mali government as key arguments to undermine these groups, in the hope of winning over their hardline members.

What next?
Jihadists have significantly stepped up their attacks in the Sahel countries since last year, prompting additional regional and international alliances and military campaigns in an effort to tackle the growing threat.

JNIM has certainly emerged as one of two of al-Qaeda’s deadliest branches, along with al-Shabab in Somalia.

Meanwhile, IS in the Sahel – which officially calls itself “West Africa Province” but is widely known as Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) – has quickly established a firm foothold in the Sahel countries despite only revealing activities there in March last year.

The group has claimed a number of attacks with large death tolls on the armies of Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.

The latest jihadist infighting may distract the two groups and affect their ability to continue to plan and stage attacks against local armies and their foreign backers. The IS report painted a picture of serious IS-JNIM clashes involving deadly attacks and large numbers of fighters. It also suggested that IS was at a numerical disadvantage to JNIM.

The in-fighting may also undermine both groups’ jihadist reputation and their ability to win recruits in the region. It is harder to convince locals to join a fight against fellow jihadists rather than government or foreign troops. Jihadists themselves often largely blame the weakening of the jihadist efforts in Syria on the in-fighting between the various groups.

This may be another reason why both IS and JNIM have not publicly spoken about the fighting until now.

Three United Nations soldiers from Chad have been killed in Mali when their convoy hit a roadside bomb, according to officials.

The blast in the northern region of Aguelhok left four more soldiers seriously wounded, the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali, known as MINUSMA, said in a statement on Sunday.

“We will have to make every effort to identify and apprehend those responsible for these terrorist acts so that they can be brought to justice,” said Mahamat Saleh Annadif, MINUSMA mission head.

“I bow before the remains of these brave Blue Helmets who died in the service of peace in Mali”.

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres also condemned what he described as a “cowardly” attack.

Guterres called on the authorities in Mali to spare no effort to identify those responsible “so that they can be brought to justice swiftly”, according to his spokesman Stephane Dujarric.

The statement from his office also said attacks targeting UN peacekeepers could constitute war crimes under international law.

Security crisis
Established in 2013, the UN peacekeeping mission in Mali has some 13,000 troops, drawn from several nations, deployed across the vast semi-arid country that has been facing a worsening security situation in recent years.

What began as a localised revolt in Mali’s north in 2012 soon spread to the centre of the country and then to neighbouring Niger and Burkina Faso.

The UN peacekeeping force, a French military intervention and military campaigns by national armies have failed to stem the violence, which killed 4,000 people in the three countries last year and displaced hundreds of thousands, according to UN figures.

The conflict has exacerbated ethnic tensions and local grievances over poverty and the absence of the state, giving rise to ethnic militias and bolstering support for armed groups, some of which are linked to the al-Qaeda and ISIL (ISIS) armed groups.