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Jihadis from Africa’s Sahel settle in Nigeria as militants move to wealthier West African countries

  • The jihadists, who had been active in Africa’s Sahel region, followed a trend of militants moving to wealthier West African coastal countries, crossing the border from neighboring Benin and establishing themselves in northwestern Nigeria.
  • The Sahel region is known as a global hotspot for violent extremism. The region’s security crisis has worsened as military coups have ousted democratic governments. Military juntas have struggled to contain the violence, leading them to cut security ties with traditional partners France and the United States and turn to Russia for support.
  • Nigeria’s Lake Kainji National Park is home to one of West Africa’s fastest-dwindling lion populations and is home to extremist groups who have taken up residence there, raising concerns among conservationists that the area is poorly policed.

Jihadists who have long operated in Africa’s volatile Sahel region are crossing from neighboring Benin into northwestern Nigeria and settling there, reports said Wednesday, the latest in a trend of militants moving to wealthier West African coastal countries.

Militants suspected to be linked to al-Qaida crossed the border from hard-hit northern Benin last year and settled in Lake Kainji National Park, one of Nigeria’s largest, which other armed groups also have access to, according to a report by the Clingendael Institute, a think tank that has done extensive research in the Sahel.

Residents near the park told The Associated Press that the facility, one of West Africa’s fastest-dwindling lion populations, has been closed for more than a year because of security threats from armed groups that attack nearby villages and roads.

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“It used to be like a tourist centre, but now it’s difficult to get through,” said John Yerima, who lives near the park in the town of New Bussa. “You can’t get on that road now. It’s really dangerous.”

Cars de Bruyn, a senior research fellow at the institute and one of the report’s authors, said the security situation in the 2,000-square-mile park, which borders Niger state and Benin, was “out of control” and “much more dangerous than we had anticipated.”

Bruyne said the “sustained presence” of militants in the park was the first sign of links between Nigerian militants, who have been waging a decade-long insurgency in the north of the country, and al-Qaida-linked militants in the Sahel, a vast arid region south of the Sahara Desert.

Rangers patrol in Lake Kainji National Park in Nigeria’s Niger State in February 2023. Jihadists long active in Africa’s volatile Sahel region have crossed the border from neighboring Benin and settled in northwestern Nigeria, the latest in a movement of militants into wealthier West African coastal countries, according to a new report dated June 19, 2024. (Nigeria Nature Conservation Foundation via The Associated Press)

Their presence gives militants an opportunity to score major victories in both countries, which have already been hit by deadly attacks in recent years, he added.

The Sahel region, known as a global hotspot for violent extremism, is facing a worsening security crisis as military coups topple democratic governments. Struggling to contain the violence, the junta has cut security ties with traditional partners France and the United States and turned to Russia for help.

Security analysts have long warned that Nigeria’s remote northwest, with little government, mineral wealth and high poverty, offers a fertile ground for jihadist groups previously active in the Sahel and the Islamic State group, which has been gaining strength in the Lake Chad basin.

“The Lake Chad-Sahel connection provides a golden opportunity for al-Qaida and the Islamic State to boast about their reputation as leaders of the global jihad,” the report said.

Conservationists also fear that the presence of armed groups in the park will further threaten the remaining lions, whose numbers are declining due to poaching and climate change. They say the park and most of Nigeria’s wildlife reserves are poorly patrolled, making them easy targets for armed groups.

“When it comes to concerns about Nigeria’s lion population, the security situation has become the top priority,” said Stella Egbe, senior conservation manager at the Nigerian Nature Conservation Foundation.

The Nigerian military frequently carries out airstrikes in the conflict-torn north and deploys troops to criminal hideouts, but security forces, battered by a decade of war in the northeast, remain outnumbered and outgunned in remote villages, and root causes of the conflict, such as poverty, remain.

The Clingendael report said it was unclear what the Sahel militants’ motives were or what their connections to other armed groups in the park were. Security analysts say the park offers logistical and influence opportunities amid a surge in illicit trade across the porous border.

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“Jihadists in the Sahel may use northwest Nigeria as a fundraising and logistical base and seek to influence jihadist groups there as part of their own competition,” said James Barnett, a research fellow at the Hudson Institute whose research in northwest Nigeria was cited in the report.

Barnett said banditry, not jihadists, remains the major security threat in many villages in northwestern Nigeria.

In the past, the bandits have collaborated with jihadists as separate groups in some attacks, but even on those rare occasions when they joined forces, he said, the results could be “very deadly.”

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