The Air Force has launched Operation Green Sweep II against Boko Haram terrorists in the Northeast, killing several insurgents in the first day of the operation, like reported by thenationonlineng.net.

It came as the Army said the troops of 120 Task Force Battalion have eliminated several Boko Haram terrorists at Goniri in Yobe State and recovered arms, including five gun trucks.

Chief of Army Staff (COAS), Lt.-Gen. Tukur Buratai, who has been leading operations in the war for sometimes, hailed the efforts and successes of the troops in recent encounters with the terrorists

Buratai, who urged the troops to sustain and upscale the tempo of the operation, also enjoined them to be more vigilant.

In line with the extant military traditions, customs and ethics, he spoke while holding a durbar with the troops at the Command and Control Centre in Maiduguri, Borno State.

About 300 troops drawn from the various units and formations across the Theatre Command attended the occasion, where, as a rare privilege, the troops freely interacted one-on-one with the Chief of Army Staff.

At the event, the troops were allowed to bare their minds on issues bothering them either as a group or individually, especially on professional matters like administration, welfare, logistics and general operational situation, including progress and challenges.

He assured them of continuous support to ensure the looming defeat of the dying Boko Haram terrorists and the eventual destruction of the Islamic State West Africa Province battling to establish a dominant presence in Nigeria.

Also, NAF spokesman Air Commodore Ibikunle Daramola, who announced the launch of Operation Green Sweep II in a statement, said structures of the insurgents were destroyed, following the air interdiction carried out with two Alpha Jet aircraft.

The statement reads: “The Air Interdiction Operation, which commenced on Wednesday, June 26, 2019, will target selected locations within the Northeast to further degrade the remnants of the terrorists as well as deny them safe havens and freedom of action.

“In the morning of Day One of the operation, air strikes by NAF aircraft resulted in the obliteration of an Islamic State of West Africa Province (ISWAP) tactical headquarters and neutralization of several terrorists at Kollaram in Northern Borno State.

“The attack was executed following a series of Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) missions that showed the presence of a significant number of ISWAP fighters in buildings under trees spread across the settlement along with communication facilities with roof-mounted solar panels, defensive parapets around the settlement as well as suspected tunnels at various locations.

“Consequently, the ATF dispatched two NAF Alpha Jet aircraft to attack the location recording accurate hits in the target area, leading to the destruction of some of the structures and equipment as well as the killing of several terrorists.”

Army’s spokesman Col. Sagir Musa said in a statement that the terrorists were clinically dealt with by troops as they approached the location of the soldiers at Goniri in Yobe State with fighters on motorcycles and seven gun trucks.

Col. Musa said: “Following aborted attempt by terrorists to infiltrate 120 Task Force Battalion location at Goniri, Yobe State, Sector 2 Operation Lafiya Dole, at about 1833 hours on Wednesday, June 26, 2019, troops of the Battalion, in a professional manner, tactically waited for the terrorists to close into the killing range and opened a heavy volume of fire on the criminals who came with seven gun trucks and several other fighters on motorcycles.

“Consequently, this encounter/ambush resulted in the annihilation of dozens of terrorists, many fled with some levels of injuries and the following equipment were captured, five gun trucks, one Vehicule Blinde Leger (VBL) – a French wheeled 4×4 all-terrain vehicle built by Panhard, assorted quantity of ammunition and an unconfirmed number of motorcycles were destroyed.

“Generally, in comparable terms, the security situation within the Northeast zone is relatively calm and under control, as troops remain committed and resolute to conducting robust multiple aggressive operations to end the insurgency,” the statement said.

Boko Haram fighters killed  29  people following two attacks in Borno State, like reported by punchng.com.

The insurgents slaughtered 20 farmers in Ngamgam village, Mobbar Local Government Area of the state.

Ngamgam is about 50 kilometres from Damasak, which is at  the border between Nigeria and Niger Republic.

A security source told our correspondent that the attack forced the majority of the people to flee Ngamgam to Damasak.

The source said,  “We got  information  that  suspected members of  the terrorist group attacked Ngamgam settlement and killed 20 farmers on  their farms.”

The  insurgents were alleged to have attacked Kaula village in Guzamala LGA of the troubled state,  killing nine persons and carting away food and livestock.

A leader of the Civilian Joint Task Force in the state, Abba-Aji Kalli, told our correspondent on the telephone that they had been informed about the killing of nine people in Kaula.

At least seven people were killed including three terrorists while two soldiers sustained varying degrees of injuries when Boko Haram terrorist clashed with troops in Borno state Monday night, a security source said according to saharareporters.com.

The attack happened in Mafa headquarters, Mafa local government area of Borno state around 1830hrs on Monday evening, killing a soldier and destroying many houses.

According to the security source both the attackers and troops recorded casualties, although the troops killed three terrorists and seized one of their utility vehicles and motorcycles.

“The troops response swiftly to the attackers, when attacking our troops in Mafa yesterday, they suffered some causality three bodies of attackers found and many of them fled with gun wounds. One Hilux van and two motorcycles were recovered by the troops.

“Unfortunately three civilians and a soldier lost their lives and two soldiers were seriously wounded in the attacks. Two trucks belong troops was by the attackers,” the source said.

Similarly, there was another attack at Kareto in Mobar local government area of the state, the gallant troops successfully repelled the attacks.

The Nigerian Army says it has rescued 42 women, 51 children and two men used by Boko Haram terrorists as labourers on a farm in different clearance operations in Borno, like reported by saharareporters.com.

Col. Sagir Musa, the Acting Director Army Public Relations, stated this in a statement, adding that three terrorists were neutralized in the operation.

Twenty-four of the children rescued were administered with polio vaccines by the Nigerian Army regimental medical officers.

According to him, it was in line with the Chief of Army Staff directive on the collaboration between the army and National Primary Health Care Development Agency to reach out to areas not captured in the polio vaccination exercise.

Musa said new camps set up by the terrorists were also destroyed.

The army said it recovered copies of the Quran, one generator, two bicycles, flags, five bicycles, five SIM cards of different networks and clothing materials from the terrorists’ enclaves.

Iran expanded its terrorist activities to Africa where it has recruited an estimated 300 militants to attack the United States and other Western targets in retaliation for American sanctions against Tehran, the Daily Telegraph reported Monday.

The U.S. has deemed Iran the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.

“Iran is setting up a new terrorist infrastructure in Africa with the aim of attacking Western targets,” an unnamed senior Western security source told the Telegraph. “It is all part of Tehran’s attempts to expand its terrorist operations across the globe.”

Details about the existence of Iran’s terror cell in Africa reportedly surfaced after a series of arrests in Chad in April.

Investigators reportedly learned that Iranian operatives are recruiting and training men between the ages of 25 and 35 to carry out terror attacks against Western targets in Africa.

Iran has already recruited an estimated 300 militants who have “have undergone rigorous training at Iranian-run training camps in Syria and Iraq,” the Telegraph noted.

The article came on the same day that U.S. President Trump’s administration implemented additional restriction on Iran as part of its maximum pressure campaign against the Shiite regime.

Tensions between Washington and Tehran have intensified in recent months, particularly in the wake of an Iranian attack that brought down a U.S. drone.

Citing Western security officials on Monday, the Telegraph reported:

The new [Iranian] terror network [in Africa] has been established on the orders of Qassem Suleimani, the head of the Quds Force, the elite section of Iran’s Republican Guard Corps that has responsibility for overseas operations.

The aim of the new terror cell is to target US and other Western military bases on the continent, as well as embassies and officials.

The Iranian cells are said to be active in a number of African countries including Sudan, Chad, Ghana, Niger, Gambia, and the Central African Republic.

Under President Trump, the U.S. has designated the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) a foreign terrorist organization, a move that further sanctioned Iran’s elite military unit.

Iranian Maj. Gen. Suleimani’s Quds force is a component of the IRGC. The Telegraph noted that the Quds force’s highly specialized “Unit 400” is charged with expanding Iran’s terrorist network to Africa.

Breitbart News has learned that Iran’s narco-terrorist proxy, the Lebanese Hezbollah, has already expanded its operations to Africa via its drug trafficking and money laundering activities in Latin America where the group maintains a substantial presence.

Hezbollah is known to move illicit drugs from Latin America to Europe through Africa.

Moroccan Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita told Breitbart News in September 2018 that Iran has “infiltrated” his country, home to Europe’s only land border with Africa.

The minister warned that Iran was in the process of expanding into Sub-Saharan Africa, using its proxy Hezbollah.

Moreover, a U.S. House panel report acknowledged in December 2016 that Hezbollah’s drug trafficking and money laundering activities in Latin America extended to West Africa.

“Iranian and Hezbollah operatives have been arrested in the past several years in Europe, Africa, South America, Asia, and the United States – demonstrating the global reach of these networks,” Nathan Sales, a top U.S. Department of State (DOS) official told American lawmakers in November 2018.

Last Wednesday, Brian Hook, the U.S. Special Representative for Iran, also told American lawmakers that the U.S. economic sanctions had weakened Iran, asserting that they have hit Hezbollah particularly hard.

Hook’s revelation that Hezbollah is going broke came less than two years after Forbes designated the Shiite terrorist organization the wealthiest terrorist group in the world in January 2018 with an annual income of $1.1 billion, generated primarily by “aid funding from Iran, drug manufacture, and trade.”

According to Politico, former U.S. President Barack Obama’s administration turned a blind eye to Hezbollah’s drug trafficking activities in the Western Hemisphere to secure the signing of the controversial nuclear deal between Iran and the American-led world powers in 2015.

The Telegraph learned from anonymous Western intelligence that Iran has been working on establishing the terrorist networks in Africa for three years, since the signing of the nuclear pact.

President Trump pulled the United States out of the deal, arguing that it was not tough enough on Iran. As a result, the U.S. reimposed sanctions suspended under the agreement as part of an unprecedented wave of economic restrictions currently choking the Islamic Republic’s economy.

On Monday, the Trump administration imposed more sanctions on Iran, this time targeting supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and various military leaders.

The ragtag Somalia-based Al-Shabaab militia remains a security threat, with active cells in Kenya’s northeastern counties although its capacity to stage regular attacks has been diminished, like reported by nation.co.ke.

The organisation has in the past few weeks focused on targets in the border regions of Mandera, Wajir and Garissa where it has killed police officers and soldiers with home-made bombs.

The militants’ areas of operation include Sheikh Barrow, Arabia, Fino, Damasa in Lafey, Alungo, Warankara, Falama, Elrhamu and Garsesala in Mandera County.

TERROR ATTACKS

And in Wajir County they are active in Kotulo, Mansa, Boji, Diif, Konton and Khorof Harar. In Garissa, areas prone to terror attacks include Liboi, Kulan, Hulugho, Bodhai, Boni forest, Galmagala, Amuma and Hamey.

The Yumbis Border Patrol base in Garissa was the latest to be attacked, last Friday. Police, with the help of special forces, killed three of the attackers and repulsed the terrorists.

“Security agencies remain on high alert to suppress and counter Al-Shabaab’s heightened activity along our common border with Somalia,” said National Police Service Director of Communication Charles Wahong’o in a statement.

A security alert seen by the Nation had warned of impending attacks in parts of Mandera and Wajir towns.

In a separate incident on the same day, an unidentified man was shot dead after he attempted to snatch a rifle from a soldier keeping guard at the Wajir army base. No documents were found on him.

AMISOM

“That is not a problem in Wajir alone but along the entire border from Mandera down to Lamu, but we are very much aware and doing what is expected of us,” said Wajir County Police Commander Stephen Ngetich.

A senior security officer said Al-Shabaab could be retreating due to heightened operations in their perceived territories.

The African Union Mission in Somalia (Amisom), a UN-endorsed force of 22,000 soldiers, has succeeded in restricting Al-Shabaab’s operations in Somalia, forcing them to change tack and use local cells instead of crossing borders to stage attacks.

Amisom troops-contributing countries — Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Ethiopia — are said to be vulnerable to Al-Shabaab attacks.

Recently, suspected Al-Shabaab militants abducted Cuban doctors Assel Herera Correa and Landy Rodriguez, who were working in Mandera.

The two are yet to be found, with the government only indicating that everything will be done to secure their freedom.

RIVALRY

The Nation has also learnt that clan rivalry, politics and infighting within Al-Shabaab in Somalia are fuelling unrest, tension and attacks in the northeastern region.

The conflict, pitting the Marehan against other clans based in Somalia and along the Kenyan border, has led to an increase in Al-Shabaab activities in the area. The conflict has played out specifically in the Gedo region in Somalia.

Further, there has been a rise in the number of kidnappings of herders in the northeastern region in a bid to arm-twist the other clans into submission in an ongoing supremacy battle.

“The militant group has capitalised on clan dynamics and the porosity of the border to run numerous illegal businesses dealing in contraband goods, trade in weapons and human smuggling. The Kenyan government is continuing its plan to build the border wall and Al-Shabaab has seen this as putting an end to their business,” a source said.

Confidential government dispatches reported that on June 19, at least 18 Al-Shabaab militants were reported hiding between Bojigarsa and Mansa in Wajir County with the intention of attacking security postings in Kutulo, Mansa and Bojigarsa.

TERRORISTS

Their main target was said to be National Police Reservists (NPR) personnel patrolling the area.

The terrorists were said to be under the leadership of Abdirashid Ibrahim Osman, from Kutulo in Wajir. Last week terrorists raided Konton centre in Wajir East, targeting NPRs.

“The NPRs fought their attackers as locals fled the town. The NPRs ran away after running out of ammunition,” a filed security report seen by the Nation shows.

Last Tuesday northeastern regional Commissioner Mohamed Birik warned locals that they will be severely punished for helping Al-Shabaab.

“I urge residents to desist from these acts and instead be patriotic. You are the ones who suffer the most since all economic activities stall in times of insecurity,” Mr Birik told residents of Khorof Harar in Wajir County.

At least 11 Chadian soldiers were killed in an attack blamed on Boko Haram jihadists at Lake Chad, the latest in a surge of attacks in the region, authorities said according to vanguardngr.com

“The Chadian army lost 11 men including three officers… and six soldiers were wounded,” the regional authority told AFP.

It added that Chadian forces killed “26 Boko Haram members” in fighting at Tchoukoutalia after the soldiers recovered cattle that the militants had seized.

Boko Haram militants have been waging a decade-long insurgency in northwest Nigeria, but the conflict has spilled into the Lake Chad region where Nigeria borders Niger, Chad and Cameroon.

Security sources earlier said seven Chadian soldiers and a guard were killed in the ambush that happened on Friday in Mbomouga in Chad’s Ngouboua area. Since 2018, Boko Haram has carried out at least nine attacks on Chad. But the jihadist group has stepped up attacks outside Nigeria after a period of calm last year.

Last month, militants killed four people in an attack on a Cameroonian island on Lake Chad and Boko Haram killed another 13 villagers in eastern Chad.

In March jihadists killed at least 23 Chadian soldiers in an attack on an army post in the group’s deadliest attack on the country’s military. Since 2015, troops from Cameroon, Chad, Niger and Nigeria have been grouped into a mixed, multi-national force in a bid to help fight Islamist militants.

Eighteen Islamic State fighters were killed in a joint operation involving U.S., French and Niger troops near the border with Mali, Niger’s defense minister said in a statement, according to thedefensepost.com.

That comes days after France and Mali said 20 “terrorists” were killed on the Mali side of the border during the same operation, and, in a separate June 20 release, the French Ministry of the Armed Forces gave additional information about the wider cross-border operation.

But a U.S. spokesperson told The Defense Post that U.S. forces were “not involved.”

18 ISGS fighters killed near Tongo Tongo
“A major joint military operation called ACONIT involving the Armed Forces of Niger (FAN) and Force Barkhane with the support of U.S. Partners” was conducted between June 8 and 18 “in the northern border region of Tongo-Tongo where a terrorist gang” from Islamic State of the Great Sahara (ISGS) were operating, the statement signed by Niger’s Minister of National Defense Kalla Moutari said.

It said 18 “terrorists” were “neutralized,” and five others, of whom three are Nigerien, were taken prisoner, while there were “no human or material losses” to report.

The group targeted were involved in the May 14 ambush in Balley Béri, near Tongo Tongo in northern Niger in which 28 soldiers were killed, the statement said.

ISIS claimed responsibility for the ambush two days later, saying fighters from its Islamic State West Africa Province affiliate killed and wounded 40 soldiers near “the artificial border with Mali.”

“Important materiel was recovered including equipment belonging to the Armed Forces of Niger which was taken by the attackers following the ambush,” the statement said.

On behalf of the president, Moutari congratulated “the soldiers of the Armed Forces of Niger and those of the French Armed Forces (Force Barkhane) who took part in this large-scale operation, as well as the American Partners, for their technical support,” and welcomed “the fruitful military cooperation between Niger and its strategic partners.”

US military denies involvement in Niger operation
Niger hosts an estimated 800 U.S. troops, the largest American deployment in Africa. The U.S. is building a large and controversial drone base known as Niger Base 201 in the northern city of Agadez, and Niger recently gave the Americans permission to arm their drones.

But Samantha Reho, spokesperson for the U.S. military’s Africa Command, told The Defense Post on Thursday that “U.S. forces were not involved in this operation,” and that AFRICOM was “tracking this open source reporting.”

Operation Aconit followed a June 8 attack on U.S. forces in Niger, when an American Oshkosh Mine Resistant Ambush Protected All-Terrain Vehicle (M-ATV) was struck by an improvised explosive device as it entered a firing range near Ouallam, which is around 85 km (53 miles) north of the capital Niamey. There were no casualties, Africom said. The area is near a major training camp where Nigerien soldiers train to serve in the U.N. peacekeeping mission in Mali, MINUSMA, and the U.S. personnel were there for a joint training exercise.

ISIS said ISWAP fighters were responsible for that attack in issue 187 of its weekly al-Naba propaganda magazine which was released on Thursday, claiming that it “resulted in the death of a Crusader American soldier.”

The Tongo Tongo area, around 20 km (12 miles) from the Mali border, gained international notoriety in October 2017, after four American and five Nigerien soldiers were killed when their convoy was ambushed, an attack later claimed by ISGS.

Operation Aconit in Mali and Niger
Some information on the cross-border Operation Aconit – which is an apparent reference to deadly poisonous plants that include wolfsbane – had already been released by the French military on Monday, focusing on a joint Mali-France commando operation that killed 20 ‘terrorists’ in Mali’s Menaka area.

On Thursday, the French Ministry of the Armed Forces released additional information about the large-scale operation in Mali, which it said was conducted by soldiers deployed to Operation Barkhane, the France-led counter-terrorism mission in the Sahel, alongside the Armed Forces of Mali (FAMa) and the FAN between June 7 and 19 in the Liptako border region.

The Monday release had given some information about the operation on June 13 and 14, and more detail was added on Thursday.

The ministry said Operation Aconit was planned and conducted “with very little notice” and illustrating Barkhane’s “responsiveness and agility,” saying that it was carried out after a request from Niger’s President Mahamadou Issoufou, in response to the Baley Beri ambush.

The “rapid exploitation of intelligence provided by the FAN made it possible to locate a large terrorist group in the Azambara forest on the Malian side of the border” and “a series of actions” was launched on June 13.

“The presence of FAMa and FAN liaison officers within the tactical command posts and at the heart of the subgroups contributed to the success of the operation, making it possible to effectively coordinate the efforts of the different forces” in the area of ​​operation, which included the villages of Akabar, Taglal, Kosseye, Tongo Tongo, Tabarkone, Zongo Dey and In Foukareteine.

Barkhane deployed more than 400 personnel and nearly 100 vehicles from Desert Battle Group (GTD) “Edelweiss” from Gao and Menaka in Mali. A section from Mali’s armed forces and a company from Niger fought alongside the French troops in their own territories.

French helicopter commandoes conducted an airborne operation supported by a Tigre helicopter patrol and a Reaper drone, entering “a wooded area in the Azabara area to directly confront the terrorist group that had been spotted there.”

The Thursday release added that a French Atlantic 2 long-range patrol aircraft was also deployed to the area.

Air strikes were carried out by helicopters from GTD “Hombori 22” as well as by Mirage 2000 jets, and a sweeping operation was conducted by the armored GTD “Edelweiss” in support of the commandoes.

“This speed of execution and the rapidity of the maneuver” created a “shock effect on the clearly identified terrorist group belonging to the Islamic State in the Great Sahara,” forcing it into confrontation.

The Thursday release did not mention casualties, but the ministry said on Monday that three crew members were injured on June 14 when a Gazelle helicopter was “forced into an emergency landing.”

“More than 20 terrorists” were neutralized, and a large quantity of resources including more than 20 motorcycles, small arms, a rocket launcher and communications equipment were seized during the operation in Mali.

“The seized material confirmed the link between this terrorist group” and the May 14 Baley Beri ambush – optical devices “stolen from the FAN” were recovered, the French release said.

ISIS acknowledged Operation Aconit in Al-Naba 187, but played-down losses. Citing a “special source” who it said was at the scene, the propaganda magazine said ISWAP fighters clashed for several hours with Malian and “French Crusader forces” in the Akabar area of Menaka. The “source” said “a number of us were wounded,” but were able to withdraw safely from the area.

Al-Naba claimed that during the engagement a French helicopter was shot down “killing and injuring those aboard.”

The France-led operation is Niger is not the first involving the two states in northern Niger. Last December, around 15 ‘terrorists’ were killed in French airstrikes followed by two days of clearance operations on the ground near Tongo Tongo.

Insurgencies on two fronts in Niger
Niger faces insurgency on two fronts: the southeastern Diffa region near Lake Chad is increasingly frequently hit by Nigeria-based Islamic State West Africa Province insurgents, while Mali-based militants, some linked to al-Qaeda, are active in the west of the country and the wider Sahel region.

Attacks carried out by ISIS-affiliated militants in the Sahel have previously been attributed to ISGS but since May, Islamic State has attributed insurgent activities in the Mali-Burkina Faso-Niger tri-border area to ISWAP, rather than ISGS.

In a June 15 ISIS propaganda video, ISWAP militants purportedly in Nigeria, Mali and Burkina Faso were shown reaffirming their pledge of allegiance to ISIS.

Security is being significantly tightened in Niamey ahead of an African Union summit on July 7 and 8, with high-profile deployment of the military and police and checkpoints on the highways into the city, but attacks continue near the capital.

On June 3, Niger’s defense ministry said said five people including “two known terrorists” were arrested near the Niamey international airport two days earlier, and on Tuesday, two police officers were killed when gunmen attacked a police station between Ouallam and Niamey.

The recent unrest in the Sahel began in Mali in 2012 with Tuareg separatist uprising which was exploited by Islamist extremists linked to al-Qaeda who took key cities in the desert north.

France began its Operation Serval military intervention in its former colony early the next year, driving the jihadists from the towns, but the militant groups morphed into more nimble formations operating in rural areas, and the insurgency has gradually spread to central and southern regions of Mali, and across the borders into neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger.

The French mission evolved in August 2014 into the current 4,500-strong Operation Barkhane, which has a mandate for counter-terrorism operations across the Sahel, and other nations including the United Kingdom and Estonia have deployed troops and aircraft to the mission. Troops deployed to Barkhane work alongside other international operations, including the roughly 14,000-strong MINUSMA mission in Mali, and the regional G5 Sahel joint counter-terrorism force that aims to train and deploy up to 5,000 personnel from the five members – Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.

The Sahel region has become a haven for jihadist groups, who are now carrying out attacks almost daily in the vast, fragile region despite a fightback by international and local armies, like reported by dailymail.co.uk.

The latest strikes included Tuesday’s raid in northern Burkina Faso, which killed 17, and another at the gates of the Niger capital Niamey that claimed the lives of two policemen.

Eighteen members of the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara were meanwhile killed in a joint operation by US, French and Niger troops near Niger’s border with Mali, Niger’s defence ministry announced on Tuesday.

The June 8-18 operation took place in the northern border region of Tongo Tongo and targeted a group “implicated in an ambush on May 14,” in which 28 Nigerien soldiers were killed,” it said.

The volatile western rim of the southern Sahara includes conflict-ravaged Mali as well as Mauritania and Chad, which have become hunting grounds for a range of armed militia including some linked to the Islamic State (IS) group.

“It’s Sisyphean, it never stops!” said a French security source, referring to the figure in Greek mythology whose name signifies endless labour and frustration.

Sisyphus was punished for eternity by being forced to roll a boulder to the top of a hill, only to see the rock roll down again once it neared the peak.

Further complicating matters are the Boko Haram fighters from Nigeria who have now extended their attacks to neighbouring countries in a decade-long campaign of violence that has killed 27,000 people in Nigeria alone.

There are 13,000 soldiers in a UN peacekeeping force in Mali, while France — the former colonial ruler of several western Sahel countries — has deployed 4,500 troops to Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad in a mission codenamed Barkhane to help local forces flush out jihadists.

The so-called G5 Sahel group — comprising Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger — have sent 5,000 troops to help expand their anti-terror campaign.

However, their impact seems so far to be meagre.

Burkina President Roch Marc Christian Kabore on Thursday called for “more concerted action” against the jihadists and said the countries “must overcome our differences and individual interests.”

• ‘Insurrection growing’ –

A security expert said that despite repeated operations (the jihadists) still have this ability to strike regularly.

“Every month there are fairly complex attacks, improvised explosive devices are planted… giving the impression that the insurrection is growing slowly but surely,” the expert said.

“The number of incidents and victims are not reducing, rather it’s the opposite.”

One problem facing the international forces was that they were “reactive”, said Jean-Marc Balencie, an Africa expert at French consultancy firm Risk&Co.

“One can assume that the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (present in Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso) has suffered some serious blows, lost chiefs, been in a state of withdrawal and yet they have successfully pulled off several spectacular operations in recent weeks,” he said.

“A real area of concern is the capacity of resilience and recovery from losses.”

Mahamadou Savadogo, a researcher at Senegal’s Gaston Berger University, said the jihadists’ huge advantage was their invisibility.

“They just melt into the population,” he said, and then stage “sporadic attacks.”

“The foreign armies face a problem of intelligence. For the time being, the locals seem more inclined to provide information to armed groups than to local armies,” he added.

Jihadists often play on inter-ethnic tensions, further complicating an explosive situation and breeding hostility towards local armies.

• ‘Down with foreigners’ –

Foreign soldiers often face suspicion and anger from people who view their presence as a loss of sovereignty.

At the end of May, around 1,000 people gathered in the Niger capital shouting “Down with foreign military bases!” and “Down with the French army!”

Jihadist violence was largely unknown in Burkina Faso before 2015 and some claim that the arrival of the French Barkhane troops fuelled Islamist attacks.

Politicians also fan the flames by blaming external forces for the mess, analysts say.

“I personally think if France had not intervened in Mali in 2013 (when a rapid response from French military prevented Islamist groups from storming Bamako), there wouldn’t be a Malian state, so that was a good thing. But since then, the situation hasn’t really improved,” Burkinabe Defence Minister Cheriff Sy said in a recent interview.

“They’ve got maybe 4,000 men in the region, they have all the military and technological resources, so I’m surprised they haven’t been able to eradicate this band of terrorists… If they really wanted to, they could have beaten them, so do they have another agenda?”

Islamic militants killed 17 civilians in a nighttime attack on a village in northern Burkina Faso, Defense Minister Cheriff Sy said.

Overnight on June 18 to 19, “an Armed Terrorist Group carried out an attack against the civilian population in the village of Belehede, Minister of National Defense and Veterans Affairs Cheriff Sy said in a Wednesday statement.

“This attack caused the death of 17 people,” Sy said.

“A vast sweep and security operation in the area was immediately launched,” Sy added, calling on the population to be extra vigilant and report any suspicious activity.

Belehede is around 200 km (125 miles) north of the capital Ouagadougou, in the Tongomayel department of Soum Province, in Burkina Faso’s northern Sahel Region.

One of the poorest countries in the world, former French colony Burkina Faso lies in the heart of the sprawling, impoverished Sahel, on the southern rim of the Sahara desert.

The country has been battling an escalating wave of attacks attributed to a number of groups over the last three years, beginning in the North region near the border with Mali. Attacks have spread to the East region, near the border with Togo, Benin and Niger, and to a lesser extent, the west of the country.

Most attacks are attributed to the jihadist group Ansar ul Islam, which emerged near the Mali border in December 2016, the Support Group for Islam and Muslims (JNIM), which has sworn allegiance to Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, and the local ISIS affiliate.

Since May, Islamic State has attributed insurgent activities in the Mali-Burkina Faso-Niger tri-border area to its West Africa Province affiliate, rather than to what was previously known as Islamic State in the Greater Sahara. In a June 15 ISIS propaganda video, ISWAP militants purportedly in Burkina Faso were shown reaffirming their pledge of allegiance to ISIS.

Both Ansar ul Islam and Islamic State are active in Burkina Faso’s Sahel Region, according to a recent mapping project by the European Council on Foreign Relations.

According to a recent Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project analysis, violence by armed groups in Burkina Faso has spiked, with 499 fatalities reported from 124 direct civilian targeting events between November 1 and March 23, representing a 7,000% year-on-year rise.

On May 10, two French special forces personnel were killed in an operation that freed four foreign hostages during an overnight raid. The two soldiers killed were part of the “Task Force Sabre” unit of France’s Operation Barkhane which is based in Burkina Faso. Around 4,500 French personnel are deployed to the Sahel counter-terrorism mission.

Troops deployed to Barkhane work alongside other international operations including the regional G5 Sahel joint counter-terrorism force that aims to train and deploy up to 5,000 personnel.