Jihadi fighters cross over into Nigeria
Source: Northwest Arkansas Democrat Gazette
ABUJA, Nigeria -- Jihadi fighters who had long operated in Africa's volatile Sahel region have settled in northwestern Nigeria after crossing from neighboring Benin, a report said Wednesday, the latest trend in the militants' movements to wealthier West African coastal nations.
The extremists believed to be linked to al-Qaeda have in the last year crossed over from Benin's hard-hit northern region and settled in Kainji Lake National Park, one of Nigeria's largest, where other armed groups have also gained access, according to the report by the Clingendael Institute think tank, which has done extensive research in the Sahel.
Residents close to the park told The Associated Press that the facility, which holds one of West Africa's fast-declining lion populations, has been closed for more than a year because of security threats from armed groups attacking neighboring villages and roads.
"Before, it was like a tourism center (but) now, people find it difficult to pass through there," said John Yerima, who lives near the park in New Bussa town. "You cannot enter that road (leading to the park) now. It is dangerous seriously."
The security situation at the 2,000-square mile park in Niger state and along the nearby border with Benin is "getting out of hand" and is "a much more explosive situation than we had anticipated," said Kars de Bruijne, one of the authors of the report and a senior research fellow at the institute.
The "sustained presence" of the armed groups in the park is the first sign of a connection between Nigeria's homegrown extremists that have launched a decadelong insurgency in its northern region, and al-Qaeda-linked militants from the Sahel, the vast arid expanse south of the Sahara Desert, Bruijne said.
Known as a global hot spot for violent extremism, the Sahel region's worsening security crisis comes as military coups are toppling democratic governments. As the military governments struggle to contain the violence, they are increasingly severing security with traditional partners France and the United States and turning to Russia for support.
In northwest Nigeria, security analysts have in the past warned that the region's remote territories, where the government is largely absent but have rich mineral resources and high poverty levels, present an opportunity for expansion for jihadi groups that had operated mainly in the Sahel, as well as the Islamic State group, whose fighters hold sway in the Lake Chad basin.
"A link between Lake Chad and the Sahel is a major opportunity for al-Qaeda and the Islamic State to boast about their profiles as leaders of global jihad," the report said.
The Clingendael report said it is unclear what the motive of the Sahel extremists in the park is and what their relationship with other armed groups there will be. Security analysts say it offers opportunities for logistics and more influence amid booming illegal trade across the porous border.
"The Sahelian jihadis potentially can try to use northwestern Nigeria as a place for fundraising, for logistics and to try to influence the jihadi groups there as part of their own competition," said James Barnett, a fellow at the Hudson Institute whose works in northwestern Nigeria were cited in the report.
Rangers patrol at the Kainji Lake National Park in Nigeria's Niger State, February 2023. Jihadi fighters who had long operated in Africa's volatile Sahel region have settled in northwestern Nigeria after crossing from neighboring Benin, a new report said Wednesday, June 19, 2024, the latest trend in the militants' movements to wealthier West African coastal nations. (Nigerian Conservation Foundation via AP)
Rangers patrol at the Kainji Lake National Park in Nigeria's Niger State, February 2023. Jihadi fighters who had long operated in Africa's volatile Sahel region have settled in northwestern Nigeria after crossing from neighboring Benin, a new report said Wednesday, June 19, 2024, the latest trend in the militants' movements to wealthier West African coastal nations. (Nigerian Conservation Foundation via AP)