Niger: Nearly 1,300 killed by jihadists in 2025, report says

Niger’s fight against jihadist terrorism appears increasingly futile amid a report finding that nearly 1,300 people were killed by Islamists in the western Tillabéri region in 2025, according to Africa News via AFP on March 13th.

Data from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data (ACLED) recorded 1,939 terrorism-related deaths in Niger throughout 2025, with roughly 1,300 deaths occurring in Tillabéri, which borders Burkina Faso and Mali.

Around half of the fatalities were from clashes between Nigerien forces and Islamist militants, while the other half were from attacks targeting civilians.

Groups affiliated with the Islamic State and al-Qaeda are particularly active in Tillabéri; on February 26th, Islamic State militants killed 25 members of a self-defence group from four Tillabéri villages.

Since jihadists began operations in the Sahel in 2017, Tillabéri has become the deadliest central Sahel region for civilians, the ACLED said.

Islamist groups have become increasingly entrenched in the Sahel, including in the border region between Niger, Nigeria, and Benin, where groups like the al-Qaeda affiliated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) have expanded their operations.

Niger’s military junta, which seized power in 2023 following the ousting of President Mohamed Bazoum, has struggled to contain rising Islamist terrorism.

Until 2023, Niger was a Western ally in the Sahel; in recent years, Niger and its allies, Mali and Burkina Faso, have rejected Western ties in favour of forming strategic and security partnerships with Russia.

The three junta-led Sahel countries have struggled to contain the growing Islamist threat, leading them to establish the Alliance of Sahel States (AES), a cooperation pact designed to counter terrorism through the sharing of military and intelligence resources.

All three countries are rich in natural resources, and Russian support is often granted in exchange for access to resources such as gold.

Niger’s uranium stockpile has been the target of jihadist attacks, including at the Diori Hamani International Airport in Niamey on January 29th.

Reportedly, the airport is also a strategic hub that houses a military base and the headquarters of the Niger-Burkina Faso-Mali Joint Force.

Similarly, the Nigerien army believes that dozens of illegal gold mines provide a major source of income for Islamist organisations, who also force residents in areas under their control to pay fees to avoid violence.

Throughout the Sahel, jihadist groups engage in so-called “economic jihad“, where they obtain payments through means including extortion and ransom payments to fund their operations, acquire weapons and pay fighters.

Africa News via AFP, Maghrebi.org