There are growing fears the Sahel region in Africa is on its way to becoming the new frontier of terrorism, placing the lives of hundreds of Australians at risk of kidnap or death, like reported by 9news.com.au.

Many Australian mining companies are operating in West Africa and the Sahel region, a 3,860-kilometre band of land south of the Sahara Desert and stretching east-west across the African continent.This vast and often ungoverned space makes it a ripe breeding ground for Al Qaeda, Islamic State (IS) and other terror organisations.

As the self-declared IS caliphate crumbled in Iraq and Syria, jihadists and militants have been seeking out unstable spots in Africa.
Analysts from US intelligence firm Stratfor stated in a recent report that contagion into West Africa from the Sahel was becoming increasingly likely.
This could have drastic consequences for some of the continent’s most prosperous economies, such as Nigeria, Ivory Coast and Ghana, according to the Stratfor report.

Many jihadists fleeing Syria and Iraq have travelled to Libya, which acts as a gateway to the Sahel. Al Qaeda, IS and their affiliates are particularly active in parts of Niger, Mali, north-eastern Nigeria and northern Chad, which make up the Sahel.

Security analysts believe Australian and other Western workers are at risk of kidnapping by these militant groups.
Last month, two French commandos were killed in Burkina Faso while executing a daring night-time raid to free four hostages, including two French citizens, an American and a South Korean.
In 2016, Australian doctor Ken Elliott was kidnapped in northern Burkina Faso by Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen, Al Qaeda’s branch in the African Sahara.

It is unclear if Dr Elliott, now aged 84, is still alive. The former Perth doctor who ran a small hospital in Burkina Faso has not been seen since a proof-of-life video was released almost two years ago by his kidnappers.
Clive Williams, a former high-level Australian intelligence operative and counter-terror expert, told nine.com.au Dr Elliot’s prospects of a successful rescue appeared to be “low”.
“Dr Elliott is being held in a remote area by a well-armed group,” Mr Williams, now a professor at the Australian National University’s Centre for Military and Security Law, said.

“His captors no doubt find him useful as a doctor and the local authorities probably cannot offer them anything to make it worth them giving him up. It is a geographic area where the Australian government has little or no influence.”
Dr Elliott and his wife, Jocelyn, were abducted in January 2016 in the city of Djibo, where they had run a 120-bed charitable hospital for more than 40 years.

Mrs Elliott was freed by her captors three weeks after the couple was taken. She and her family have previously posted social media videos pleading with Dr Elliott’s kidnappers to release him or provide an update of the elderly man’s health.
When contacted by nine.com.au, a DFAT spokesperson said: “Dr Elliott’s case remains a high priority for the Australian Government and we continue to work with the family and with others to secure his release.”
Australia has 190 ASX-listed companies running 590 mining and exploration projects across 38 countries on the African continent.

Mr Williams warned Western expats working in the Sahel, including hundreds of Australians, face an increased risk of kidnapping or violence if more is not done to keep terror networks checks.
“Past experience has shown that terror groups having sanctuaries and training facilities [in the Sahel] will eventually make them a threat to the West.
“Being Islamist extremists they will carry their ideological fight to the West and attract foreign fighters from countries like Australia.”
Australia’s diplomatic footprint in Africa is light. According to 2017 UN data, Australia is ranked 83rd out of 125 military and police contributors to UN peacekeeping.

France currently shoulders most of the burden for patrolling the Sahel, with the US so far unwilling to turn its full attention to the troublesome region. Some critics have argued US President Donald Trump is making a grave mistake by continuing to reduce the US presence in the Sahel.

Under the banner of Operation Barkhane, France has deployed about 4,500 troops, along with drones, fighter jets, helicopters, and tanks, into three bases in Mali, Niger and Chad.
Last month Islamic State killed 28 Nigerien soldiers near the border with Mali, right in the heart of the Sahel. That bloody skirmish took place in the same location where four US special forces soldiers were killed by Islamic militants in October 2017.

The Nigerian Army Monday said nine key media personalities of the Islamic State-backed Boko Haram splinter group have been killed, like reported by guardian.ng.

Those killed, the army said, included Abu Hurayra al-Barnawi, Ali al-Ghalam al-Kajiri, Abu Musab Muhammed Mustafa al-Maiduguri and Abu Abdullah Ali al-Barnawi.

Others were Abu Musa al-Camerooni, Ahmed al-Muhajir, Abu Ali al-Bamawi, Abu Khubayb bin Ahmed al-Barnawi and Abu al-Qa’qa’ al-Maiduguri.

“The annihilation of members of its media team further confirms that the NA has decimated the group and they no longer have freedom of action,” Nigerian Army said on Twitter.

The terrorists have repeatedly claimed to have crumbled the Nigerian troops in the northern part of the country.

In May, the terrorists claimed responsibilities of not less than 12 attacks in different northeastern states, with most of them localised in in Borno State.

56 Nigerian troops, ten Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF) and three The Civilian Joint Task Force (CJTF) were killed in the attacks

Nigeria and its neighbouring countries have struck back, chasing the militants out of villages they had seized.

Boko Haram has ravaged across northern Nigeria for years, killing thousands of civilians, burning entire villages and kidnapping hundreds of women and girls.

The military campaign has been so effective, according to Nigeria’s president, Muhammadu Buhari, that he declared the group “technically” defeated multiple times.

That claimed was re-echoed by the army’s statement on Monday.

Ireland’s elite Army Ranger Wing may be joining one of the United Nations’ most dangerous peacekeeping missions, like reported by irishmirror.ie.

A request will be put before Cabinet this week for the Army Ranger Wing (ARW), the special operations unit within the Defence Forces, to be deployed to war-torn Mali.

It is understood that Minister of State at the Department of Defence Paul Kehoe will put the request before Cabinet tomorrow, before bringing the proposal before the Dáil.

This would mark the first time in a over a decade when the ARW has been deployed abroad.

The ARW has previously served abroad in East Timor and Liberia, but has not been deployed overseas since serving in Chad in 2008.

The proposed deployment has been under consideration by the Department of Defence and the Defence Forces for a number of months, with the Taoiseach visiting Mali in January.

A spokesman for the Defence Forces told the Irish Daily Mirror: “This is a political decision. It’s with the Government.”

If the proposals are approved, a 12-person team from the ARW would be deployed to conduct long-range patrols as part of the UN’s Multidimensional Integrated Stabilisation Mission in Mali (Minusma) peacekeeping mission.

No members of the Defence Forces are currently serving with the Minusma operation, although it has a separate UN mission in Mali.

A US military vehicle was hit by an improvised explosive device in Niger, at the site of a deadly extremist attack on American forces in 2017, the military announced Sunday according to alarabiya.net.

The Mine Resistant Ambush Protected All-Terrain Vehicle activated the bomb “while entering a firing range in the vicinity of Ouallam, Niger on June 8, 2019” during a joint training exercise, US Africa Command said in a statement.

“There are no reported US casualties, however, as a precaution, US service members are being evaluated,” it said, adding that Nigerien forces had secured the scene of the blast.

Four American soldiers and four Nigerien soldiers were killed in an October 2017 ambush in the country, when scores of extremists overran their convoy in southwestern Niger, near the border with Mali.

The ambush claimed the largest number of American lives in combat anywhere in sub-Saharan Africa since the “Black Hawk Down” incident in Somalia in 1993.

Niger is one of a number of poor, fragile countries in the Sahel region that have been hit by an extremist revolt.

Various insurgent groups operate in the country’s west and north, and Nigeria’s Boko Haram is present in its southeast.

The country is part of the so-called G5 Sahel group set up to manage a coordinated response to the extremist insurgency.

The latest airstrike by US forces in Somalia has left 6 Al Shabaab militants dead, like reported by capitalfm.co.ke.

Officials say the airstrike was launched in the remote part of Golis Mountains where the terrorists have set up cells.

In a statement, the US Africa Command said this is the seventh airstrike in a month against the ISIS-Somalia and Al-Shabaab.

U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. William West, who is the deputy director of operations, U.S. Africa Command said they will continue piling pressure on the terrorist networks in Somalia, to enable governance to take hold.

He said the continued precision airstrikes support Somali security forces efforts to protect the Somali people from terrorism and support long-term security in the region.

“U.S. Africa Command will continue to work with its partners to transfer the responsibility for long-term security in Somalia from AMISOM to the Federal Government of Somalia and its Member States. In support of the Federal Government of Somalia, U.S. forces will use all effective and appropriate methods to assist in the protection of the Somali people, including partnered military counterterrorism operations with the Federal Government of Somalia, AMISOM, and Somali National Army forces,” he said in a statement to the media.

According to the US-Africa command, no civilian was injured during this week’s airstrikes.

Since 2007, Al Shabaab has fought to overthrow successive internationally-backed governments in Mogadishu.

It was in 2011 that the Al-Qaeda affiliated group was pushed out of Mogadishu, the Somali capital and subsequently from other key towns including the port city of Kismayu.

Kenyan forces are in Somalia fighting under the African Mission in Somalia (AMISOM)

Violent extremist groups are no longer confined to the Sahelian states of Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mauritania and Chad. Their threat is spilling over into the northern regions of West African coastal states – particularly Benin, Ghana and Togo. This was confirmed on 1 May when two French tourists and their Beninese guide were abducted in Benin’s Pendjari National Park, like reported by dailymaverick.co.za.

The 2016 Grand-Bassam attack in Côte d’Ivoire had already shown how violent extremist groups could strike a West African coastal city beyond their known areas of operation in the Sahel. This attack, claimed by Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), was planned in Mali, and the perpetrators travelled from there.

Extremist elements were also reported in north Benin, Togo and Ghana following the March 2019 launch of the Otapuanu military operation in south-eastern Burkina Faso. The operation reportedly led to the arrest of militant leader Oumarou Diallo, who said he had plans to place a jihadist cell in eastern Burkina Faso with ramifications for neighbouring coastal countries.

There was a surge in unclaimed attacks in Burkina’s east in 2018. This was apparently linked to the infiltration and recruitment by elements allegedly associated with the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara (ISGS) in the border area spanning Burkina Faso, Niger, Benin, Togo and Ghana.

Since the 2013 French Serval and Chadian operations to uproot “jihadists” from northern Mali, the number of violent extremist groups in the Sahel has risen, and new coalitions have been formed. Attacks against increasingly ambitious targets have grown in number, scope and complexity. New insurgents, both mid-level commanders and foot soldiers, are recruited from the communities where extremists settle. Communities are infiltrated through co-opting, coercing or killing local leaders. Extremists take advantage of existing intra- or inter-community conflicts in order to recruit.

Several interrelated dynamics have enabled expansion inside states and across borders (see maps above). Military pressure by national armies, the French Operation Barkhane and to a lesser extent the yet-to-be fully operational G5 Sahel Joint Force has pushed extremists beyond their initial operational areas.

Expanding enables extremists to escape areas where they can be tracked, and over stretches national and regional security and military arrangements. The Complexe W-Arly-Pendjari park straddling Niger, Burkina Faso and Benin offers dense forest cover which makes aerial surveillance challenging and provides food through poaching. Groups affiliated to Islamic State or al-Qaeda, despite collaborating when they face a common enemy, are also in competition and need new communities in which to embed themselves.

Violent extremist groups often infiltrate spaces where the social contract between the state and citizens is weak or non-existent. They cooperate with other criminal groups such as illegal gold miners, poachers or traffickers, who also have an interest in maintaining state absence or weakening state presence.

Lastly, from a strategic perspective, the current leader of the ISGS, Adnan Abou Walid al-Sahraoui, was the spokesperson of the Movement for Unity and Jihad in West Africa at the time when the movement controlled the city of Gao in northern Mali. The reference to West Africa in the group’s name highlights its regional ambition. This was also reflected in the diverse West African origins of its recruits.

The relationship between ISGS and the Islamic State West Africa Province branch of Boko Haram in the Lake Chad Basin remains unclear. But it points to a potentially larger expansion strategy of Islamic State through local affiliates.

These trends demonstrate violent extremist groups’ resilience and their capacity to adapt. They also show the limitations of current responses to the threat. So how should strategies be designed, implemented, sequenced and coordinated at national and regional levels?

This is where coastal countries and multilateral organisations can draw important lessons from the Sahel. First, affected countries need to work together, including through intelligence sharing and joint operations. But such efforts must respect human rights and shouldn’t stigmatise specific communities – this would only push more recruits into the arms of extremists.

Second, security and military solutions are sometimes needed to weaken violent extremist groups. However, these tactics will be insufficient unless political, economic and security governance deficits are dealt with and service delivery is enhanced.

Third, while external technical help, financial support and experience sharing are needed, countries shouldn’t over-rely on outside support. They must retain their political leadership and ownership of initiatives to prevent and counter extremism. The Sahelian example has proven that external funding comes with delays, constraints and agendas not always attuned to local, national and regional contexts and priorities.

Another lesson is that dialogue with some insurgents shouldn’t be ruled out. Violent extremist groups are segmented. Foot soldiers, middle managers and leaders don’t necessarily pursue the same interests. This opens avenues for discussions at several levels. Whether such negotiations should be open is a complicated question, but the process should be led by national actors who decide on the timing, interlocutors, format and preferred outcomes.

The expansion of militant groups beyond the Group of Five Sahel countries calls for a reassessment of how states respond as a region. The Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas) and the African Union (AU) also need to be more involved. The deteriorating regional security situation paradoxically provides an opportunity to improve cooperation in a region that has witnessed devastating institutional rivalry between the United Nations, AU, Ecowas and the G5 Sahel.

To stem the spreading threat, national and multilateral actors need to integrate these lessons with ongoing responses in affected areas.

ISIS has claimed responsibility for an attack in an area of eastern Congo stricken by the second-worst Ebola outbreak on record, like reported by dailymail.co.uk.

The Allied Democratic Forces, a group with links to ISIS, said Tuesday that it had killed or wounded 25 people in an attack on government troops in the town of Beni.

But Modeste Bakwanamaha, the mayor of Beni, said the group had in fact butchered 13 civilians with guns and knives in an assault late on Monday.

ISIS made the announcement via its channels on anonymous messaging app Telegram.

Beni is in the middle of a cluster of towns in eastern Congo which is in the grips of a worsening Ebola epidemic.

In the last 10 months more than 2,000 cases have been registered, with two thirds of those proving to be fatal. 

ISIS began claiming attacks in the Congo in April this year, and Monday’s raid marked at least the third assault claimed by them.

On April 18, the group claimed its first attack, saying the Allied Democratic Forces had killed three people in fighting near Bovata, a short distance from Beni.

Announcing its presence in the Congo via its semi-official Amaq news agency, the group described the country as the ‘Central Africa Province of the Caliphate.’

Fighting continued last month, when on May 30 ISIS claimed Allied Democratic Forces attacked three military bases near Mavivi – leaving ‘dozens’ hurt or killed.

Meanwhile Congolese defence forces claimed to have killed 26 ADF fighters in a gun battle near the town of Ngite. 

The ADF originated in nearby Uganda and has been active in Congo for some time, killing hundreds of people over the last three years.

The ADF has never officially claimed allegiance to ISIS but last year an ISIS propaganda book was found on the body of a dead ADF fighter and members of the group have been posting jihadi propaganda online.

A report by New York University’s Congo Research Group and the Bridgeway Foundation in November said the ADF had received money from a financier linked to ISIS, as the group looked to spread beyond Syria as its so-called Caliphate collapsed.

Rival armed groups control parts of eastern Congo, long after the official end of a 1998-2003 war in which millions of people died.

Some 2,000 foreign fighters, including from the Daesh (IS) terrorist group joined the Boko Haram militant group in 2018, Russia’s First Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dmitry Polyanskiy said during UN Security Council consultations on the situation in the Central African region.

“There is also a significant concern because of the flow into Boko Haram of foreign terrorists, including fighters from Islamic State. According to some views, during the course of 2018, the ranks of Boko Haram were filled with 2,000 new recruits”, Polyanskiy said on Tuesday.

Polyanskiy said the group still maintains its military potential and is capable of carrying out raids in Central Africa.

“The activities of Boko Haram have continued in Chad, including in border regions with Niger, Nigeria, Cameroon, where the extremists are attacking civilians, UN personnel, and NGOs, as well as the checkpoints of Chadian military”, he added.

Nigeria has been plagued by suicide attacks and kidnappings by Boko Haram, which has pledged allegiance to the Daesh terrorist group, in the northern part of the country since 2009.

Nigeria, along with Niger, Cameroon, and Chad are engaged in military operations combating the militants.

Niger security forces reported on Monday that raids thwarted bomb attacks planned by radical Islamic group Boko Haram against targets in the city of Diffa, located in the southeast of the country, like reported by plenglish.com.

The news portal ActuNiger revealed that agents seized dozens of explosive belts through searches in residences, those would be used by extremists against houses of religious worship and other facilities.

They also prevented the detonation of explosives at the Diffa airport, by killing two alleged terrorists.

Difa region has been in a state of emergency since 2015. Recently, it has been experiencing waves of onslaughts with explosives by radicals, causing dozens of victims.

In the heat of those attacks, the radicals of Boko Haram also kidnapped plenty of civilians and provoked the displacement of thousands of human beings. Countries such as Chad, Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria and Benin joined forces to fight against the Boko Haram sect, which as an armed group aims to impose an Islamic caliphate.

Troops of Multinational Joint Task Force MNJTF in continuation of the ongoing offensive operations to oust Islamic State terrorists from the Lake Chad Area, have neutralized over 20 terrorists operating around Arege, Malkonory and Tumbum Rego general area, like reported by leadership.ng.

The chief of Military Public Information Col Timothy in a statement said the troops also destroyed several gun trucks, arms and ammunition, as well as a Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Device, which was meant to disrupt troops advance.

He, however, regretted that unfortunately, four personnel of the MNJTF were wounded during the fire fight and have been evacuated for urgent medical attention. He restated that the MNJTF remains committed to delivering the mandate of the force and therefore urges continuous support and solidarity of the good people of the Lake Chad region.

Read More at: https://leadership.ng/2019/06/04/troops-kill-20-boko-haram-terrorists/