Sahel-based jihadists are extending their reach. Can a fractured region push back?

"In Mbera, a Mauritanian camp across the border housing more than 120,000 refugees, she has had to start life afresh with no idea if her spouse is dead or alive. We came here because of conflict, leaving everything behind, she said quietly while sitting among her fellow members of Femme Resource, a group of women who do door-to-door campaigns in the camp to help expectant mothers and combat gender-based violence."

"Millions of lives have been upended in the last two decades across the Sahel region which stretches across a band of countries from the Atlantic Ocean to the Red Sea due to the actions of terror groups and other violent non-state actors that have proliferated in countries with often weak central governments. The violence has been fuelled by a multitude of factors, including the instability and availability of ammunition and mercenaries that stemmed from the 2011 Nato invasion of Libya."

"In recent years, concern has been mounting within and outside government circles about armed groups extending their reach towards coastal west Africa. Between January 2021 and October 2023, an average of 26 security incidents each month were attributed to jihadists across Benin, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Togo. In January of this year, militants from the al-Qaida-linked Jama'a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin (JNIM) attacked a military formation in northern Benin, leaving 30 soldiers dead."

Amina, a 50-year-old whose gendarme husband fought jihadists, lives in Mbera camp with no certainty about his fate and must rebuild from nothing. Mbera in Mauritania houses more than 120,000 refugees who fled Mali. Femme Resource women run door-to-door campaigns to support expectant mothers and combat gender-based violence in the camp. Millions across the Sahel have been displaced over two decades by terror groups and other violent non-state actors that proliferated where central governments are weak. The violence was fuelled in part by instability and weapons and mercenaries linked to the 2011 Nato invasion of Libya, and jihadist activity has been expanding toward coastal West Africa with rising security incidents.

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