West Africa: Over 1.8K Terror Attacks Recorded in 2023

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Facts

  • West Africa recorded more than 1.8K terrorist attacks in the first six months of the year, resulting in nearly 4.6K deaths, the president of the 15-nation Economic Community of West African States Commission (ECOWAS) claimed on Tuesday.1
  • According to Omar Touray, 2,275 people in Burkina Faso, 844 in Mali, 77 in Niger, and 70 in Nigeria lost their lives to deadly attacks between January 1 and June 30.2
  • Touray added that half a million people in West Africa are refugees, roughly 6.2M are internally displaced and, if international inaction continues, about 42M will be at risk of starvation by the end of August.3
  • Terming the data "a snippet of the horrendous impact of insecurity," Touray told the UN Security Council that terrorism, armed rebellion, organized crime, and unconstitutional government changes pose "an additional threat to the region."4
  • Military chiefs of staff from ECOWAS have reportedly proposed two options to bolster a regional standby force – establishment of a 5K-strong brigade at an annual cost of $2.3B or deployment of troops on demand for $360M a year.3
  • Islamist militants have allegedly spread their activities from Niger to Burkina Faso and Mali to West Africa's coastal states. An insurgency in northern Mali in 2012 spread to Burkina Faso, Niger, and Chad, threatening coastal states including Benin, Ghana, Togo, and Ivory Coast.5

Sources: 1France 24, 2ABC News, 3Al Jazeera, 4Washington Post, and 5North Africa Post.

Narratives

  • Narrative A, as provided by ISS Africa. Though violent extremism is spilling over from the Sahel to coastal states in West Africa, a purely military response to the existential threat will fall short of protecting innocent citizens. Such actions would fail to tackle the root causes enabling and fueling the emergence of jihadis in the region or stop retaliatory attacks. Governments must focus on breaking terrorists' supply chains if they are serious about addressing domestic terrorism.
  • Narrative B, as provided by E-International Relations. While the Sahel and West Africa attacks have been linked to jihadists for decades, the Westphalian state crisis has been a potent force behind the continuous aggression. Violent extremist groups, ethnic leaders, and foreign powers are operating in the region, and they are very much part of the years-long multi-dimensional conflict in West Africa. Simply blaming terrorism for the region's apathy will not help it recover.

Predictions