Date : 17 Feb 2025
Terrorism in the Sahel: The Limits of State Cooperation
"Africa remains the epicenter of global terrorism," lamented Amina J. Mohammed, Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations, during the UN Security Council session on January 21, 2025. Particularly affected by terrorism, West African nations are striving to contain the tremors of regional and transnational instability.
The Expansion of the Jihadist Threat in West Africa
Between January and September 2024, the African Union’s Center for the Study and Research on Terrorism recorded 3,400 terrorist attacks and 13,900 casualties across Africa. According to the UN Deputy Secretary-General, these attacks represent a 250% increase in West Africa over the past two years. Groups affiliated with the Islamic State and Al-Qaeda are proliferating in the tri-border area—where Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso converge—while also expanding southward toward coastal nations such as Benin and Ghana.
The transnational nature of jihadist movements in the region necessitates a cooperative and coordinated response from West African states. Leonardo Santos Simão, Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General for West Africa and the Sahel, emphasized that strengthening regional coordination mechanisms in counterterrorism efforts is imperative.
Counterterrorism Efforts Undermined by the AES Withdrawal from ECOWAS
The Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), a coalition of 12 West African nations, oversees regional security and economic cooperation to ensure sustainable development. However, on January 29, Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso withdrew from the regional body, dealing a significant blow to its influence.
This departure weakens ECOWAS, as it loses the three countries at the heart of both regional and global terrorism. This isolationist stance risks hindering counterterrorism efforts and may allow jihadist groups to become even more elusive.
In this context, the UN underscores that long-term stabilization in the Sahara-Sahel region requires sustained international support for Mali, Niger, and Burkina Faso. In response, Bankole Adeoye, African Union Commissioner for Political Affairs, Peace, and Security, announced that the UN and the AU would finance counterterrorism operations in the region through the reactivation of Security Council Resolution 2719 (2023), which concerns funding for AU peace support missions.
What Lies Ahead for Counterterrorism in West Africa?
ECOWAS is adopting a socio-economic strategy to combat terrorism, focusing on economic development as a means to pacify the region. The organization argues that increasing trade and improving the purchasing power of local populations will deter individuals from joining jihadist ranks for financial reasons.
Sierra Leone’s Foreign Minister highlighted this approach, stating, “It is crucial to restore a social contract with young people and invest in their potential” to prevent West Africa’s human resources from falling into the hands of terrorist groups.
West Africa remains deeply divided, with some nations driving regional security cooperation and others, like the AES states, embracing isolationism. Among the key regional players, Nigeria is on the verge of becoming Africa’s third-largest air force. Strategically, its enhanced military capabilities are crucial for intelligence gathering, reconnaissance, and surveillance operations against highly mobile and elusive adversaries. Nigeria’s air support and precision strikes have targeted terrorist strongholds in the Niger Delta and Boko Haram positions in the Lake Chad region. This growing military power is also bolstering ECOWAS’s efforts to establish a regional counterterrorism force, which requires $2.4 billion in investment to modernize its coordinated intervention capacity.
Cooperation at the Heart of the Sahel’s Counterterrorism Efforts
Funding for this initiative faces obstacles due to disagreements among member states over whether to contribute to an ECOWAS fund or allocate resources to national efforts. Thus, counterterrorism cooperation remains hampered by the "sovereigntist" approach of certain West African nations. The withdrawal of AES countries from ECOWAS exemplifies this dynamic.
Similarly, Chad has threatened to withdraw from the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF), which includes Nigeria, Cameroon, Niger, Benin, and Chad, and is dedicated to eradicating the jihadist threat in the Lake Chad region. After 40 Chadian soldiers were killed in a Boko Haram attack, President Mahamat Idriss Déby Itno expressed frustration: "Why should we sacrifice our children for others while receiving no support in return?"
Counterterrorism efforts in the region are increasingly challenged by the growing divide between West African states—those committed to regional cooperation and those, like the AES members, prioritizing national sovereignty in security matters. As a result, West African nations struggle to coordinate and unify their response to a transnational and regional terrorist threat.
In light of these developments, one pressing question remains: how can the isolation of Sahelian states be prevented from fueling the expansion of jihadism in the region?