ECOWAS AND RISING THREAT OF TERRORISM
Terrorism and insecurity have undermined the accomplishment of Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). In more than 45 years, efforts of ECOWAS have been compromised by insecurity and threat of terrorism in the Sahel region and North-Eastern Nigeria, which led to a counter reaction of the creation of a Regional Action Plan adopted in December 2019 by the ECOWAS Heads of State and Government. ECOWAS countries are facing threat of terrorism.
Boko Haram, Islamic State of West Africa, Bandits and pirates in the Gulf of Guinea have constituted themselves into terror groups in Nigeria, Niger, Cameroun, Mali, Chad, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso. Boko Haram and other Islamic Jihadists in West Africa have made the region to become the epicentre of the security crisis that has its roots in neighboring countries like Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Cameroun, Mali, Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso.
West Africa’s terrorist groups are set to encroach further into Togo, Benin, Ivory Coast and Ghana. Groups with links to al-Qaida and the so-called Islamic State have strengthened their foothold across the arid Sahel region this year, making large swathes of territory ungovernable and stoking violence, especially in Mali and Burkina Faso. The intense migration and trade flows between the coastal states and the Sahel hinterland, along with the wide dispersion of ethnic and religious communities, encourage the diffusion of ideologies and provide easy access and ready-made footholds for jihadists. As a result, new jihadi “solidarity movements” continue to spring up and spread throughout West Africa.
The recent rise of jihadist movements in West Africa, including Boko Haram in the Lake Chad region and Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and its affiliates in the Sahel-Saharan region, has puzzled many observers. The easy spread of the jihadist ideology, the jihadist movements’ success in massively recruiting followers among local populations as well as their ability to conquer and administer territories, are unprecedented in the region’s contemporary history. This paper sheds light on the factors and processes that contribute to the emergence of these movements. It argues that the phenomenon of jihadist insurgencies in West Africa emerges as a result of a series of processes at the global, local, and individual level. At the global level, there is the formation and dissemination of the global ideology of jihadism, conceptualised by Muslim activists and scholars based on a particular understanding of Islam and the challenges that are facing contemporary Muslim societies. At the local level, the appropriation of jihadist ideologies by “Muslim activists” who then use it to formulate a discourse which taps into local social and political demands in order to mobilise followers, is key. For a wide range of reasons, certain regions of Africa have experienced weakened state capacity and increased local conflict, and it is in these areas that jihadist insurgencies have emerged. At the individual level, the process by which African individuals decide to enrol in jihadist groups include ideological, situational, and strategic motivations, and these have all been facilitated by deteriorating conditions of life in marginalised areas.
The spread of jihadists in West Africa from Senegal, Mali, Niger, Benin, Togo, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Ghana and Cameroon are all countries that are now under threat. West Africa has experienced a string of explosive developments in the last 7 years. Northern and central Nigeria became the targets of a rising tide of attacks claimed by Boko Haram and its acolyte, Ansaru. Northern Mali fell into the hands of separatist and jihadist forces and, for the first time, the insurgency threatened the stability of neighbouring states. The Libyan state has been unable to re-establish its monopoly over the use of force following the violent overthrow of Gadhafi. A break-away faction of Al-Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM), a pivotal component of the region’s jihadist network is terrorizing West Africa.
Recent attacks in the southern regions of Burkina Faso and Ivory Coast, near their borders with the Ivory Coast, Ghana, Togo and Benin, are evidence of a growing threat of terror groups to countries in the Gulf of Guinea. This was confirmed by the arrest in December 2018 of suspected militants preparing operations targeted at three capital cities – Bamako, Ouagadougou and Abidjan – for early 2019.
The first signs of jihadist activity date back to the mid-2010s. Malian fighters reportedly conducted a reconnaissance operation in 2014-2015 in the W National Park, a wetlands area that straddles the borders of Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger. Similarly, in 2015, several members of an active Jama’at Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) cell in the Sama forest, on the border between the Ivory Coast and Mali, were arrested, though others evaded capture. Members of this unit allegedly kidnapped a Colombian nun in the Sikasso region in February 2017 before being arrested in December 2018.
The evolution of violence across West Africa, with a particular focus on Niger, Ivory Coast, Mali, Lake Chad basin and Burkina Faso is dangerous for ECOWAS countries. In the regions experiencing the highest levels of political insecurity, it identifies whether and how conflicts tend to cluster or spread, potentially across national borders. In 2017, five countries — Burkina Faso, Niger, Chad, Mali and Mauritania — backed by former colonial power France, launched the G5 Sahel taskforce to combat the jihadist. But a lack of finance, training and equipment limited their effectiveness and their numbers. For the moment, the force numbers 4,000 troops, when 5,000 were originally planned.
