Jihadist violence reportedly on the rise in Sahel

The African Union has called for cooperation in order to tackle the rising violence by jihadist groups in the Sahel region.

As reported by The New Arab on April 27th, the attacks have been targeted at military sites across northern Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger.

The government in Benin has laid the blame at the door of a spillover from Niger and Burkina Faso, with both countries being ruled by army officers who rose to power in part on the promise of quashing the long-running jihadist violence in the Sahel region.

Benin announced that over 54 soldiers were killed by Islamic insurgents during an attack on two military outposts near the borders of Niger and Burkina Faso on April 17.

The Al-Qaeda-affiliated Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims have claimed responsibility for the attack, claiming that they killed 70, rather than 54, soldiers.

The chairman of the African Union, Mahamoud Ali Youssouf, condemned the latest attack, labelling it “cowardly” and going on to say that: “the attack “highlights the urgent need for enhanced cooperation between neighbouring states to address the growing threat posed by terrorist groups operating in the Sahel”.

Several dozen soldiers were also reportedly killed on March 28th in a presumed jihadist attack in the east of Burkina Faso.

Benin has criticised the lack of cooperation between themselves and Niger and Burkina Faso, despite the latter two countries facing recent attacks.

Niger and Burkino Faso have both accused Benin of harbouring foreign military bases to destabilise them however Benin has strongly denied these accusations.

Burkina Faso, Niger and Benin have been confronted with local branches of Al-Qaida and ISIS on much of their sovereign territory since 2015 when the groups began to rise in strength in the region.

Terrorism in Burkina Faso alone has led to the deaths of more than 26,000 people and created a further 2 million internal refugees, according to NGO Acled.

The New Arab, Maghrebi