Report

American Enterprise Institute

Key Points

Sahel-based Salafi-jihadi groups including al Qaeda and the Islamic State coordinate and cooperate across organizational divides united by common objectives, shared histories, and ethnic ties, creating a unique ecosystem of ideology and terror.

The Salafi-jihadi ecosystem in the Sahel is strengthening rapidly. The number of attacks will continue to rise and will become deadlier as groups’ capabilities improve.

The groups’ coordinated effort to transform Sahelian society and governance into their vision under Islam has helped destabilize the region and has created additional opportunities for Salafi-jihadi growth.

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Introduction

The land that stretches across western Africa hosts a network of Salafi-jihadi groups that is expanding as local conditions deteriorate. Porous borders, weak and resource-strapped governments, and rising insecurity driven by both poorly equipped militaries and intra-communal conflict create opportunities for al Qaeda– and Islamic State–linked groups to strengthen in West Africa’s Sahel region, which includes Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania, and Niger.1 Over the past decade, the number of groups operating in the Sahel has increased, and in the past year, the number of terror attacks has doubled.2 These Sahel-based Salafi-jihadi groups coordinate and cooperate across organizational divides united by common objectives, shared histories, and ethnic ties, creating a unique ecosystem of ideology and terror.

Conditions in the Sahel region make the operating environment complex, even without the presence of Salafi-jihadi groups. The Sahel borders the Sahara desert, and the population is seminomadic. Trade and migration routes connect the region, and communal identities—especially ethnic identities today—and relationships are crucial. Desertification has led to increased conflicts between farmer and herder communities over access to water and arable land.3

The states themselves are fragile. State institutions play a marginal, if any, role in the daily lives of most. The governments are effectively absent from the peripheries of their countries. This is where the Salafi-jihadi groups are growing.

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Notes