Recent attacks by Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM) and the Islamic State in the Greater Sahara—local affiliates of al-Qaeda and ISIS—against one another is punctuating a security breakdown in West Africa, a region already challenged by...
The Counter Extremism Project (CEP) released a new report today, Civilian Counterterrorism Forces and the Fight Against Extremism – A Review of Nigeria, Somalia, and Burkina Faso. Local terrorist affiliates of al-Qaeda and ISIS have subjected sub...
French influence in its one-time colony of Burkina Faso has deteriorated since armed soldiers deposed the government in a coup last September and coup supporters attacked the French embassy, believing it was harboring the deposed president. Given...
CEP Senior Director Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler interviewed: "Unfortunately, this is just the latest incident in a region that is really now a belt of insecurity stretching from the West African coast all the way to the East African coast. And Burkina Faso is unfortunately by now one of the hotspots of this region, which large-scale networks both of al-Qaeda as well as the Islamic operate. Now in Burkina Faso, the main operating network and very likely candidate responsible for this attack is JNIM, the coalition that al-Qaeda built of regional affiliates in 2017, which now controls large parts of the country."
CEP Tweet linking to "Syria: Extremism and Terrorism" report quoted: "With Wagner Group’s presence in #Mali, #Russia has continued to make inroads across the Sahel, particularly in Mali’s southwestern neighbor Burkina Faso. The Wagner Group has been accused of indiscriminate killings in Mali. More on Russia’s interventions"
Last week, Burkina Faso President Paul-Henri Damiba was deposed by Captain Ibrahim Traoré and his supporters in a successful coup, the second in the country in the past year. Traoré cited Damiba’s lack of progress in defeating Islamic extremists—the...
Violent attacks by Islamist extremists killed approximately 50 people in Burkina Faso last week as the country’s security continue to deteriorate. The attacks were staged between the rural communes of Madjoari and Pama, near Benin and Togo. No...
The leader of Burkina Faso’s recent military coup, Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Damiba, has called on the international community to back the country in its fight against militants linked to al-Qaeda and ISIS. Last week, the military deposed Burkina Faso’s...
The security situation in Africa’s Sahel region continues to deteriorate. In January 2020, the U.N. envoy to West Africa reported that terrorist attacks have increased fivefold in Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger since 2016. In 2019 alone, there were...
One year after a deadly attack in Mali, CEP is releasing updated resources on the Islamic extremist groups responsible for the attack, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb and al-Mourabitoun, as well as Mali's struggles to combat extremists while...
Extremists: Their Words. Their Actions.
Fact:
On September 26, 2018, an improvised explosive device planted at the foot of a bridge exploded, killing eight soldiers in the lead vehicle of a Burkinabe military convoy traveling in northern Burkina Faso.
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