The Sahel's Terror Surge Signals a New Front in Global Security

"Manda joined the growing list of towns and villages reduced to symbols of terror, underscoring the reality that groups like Islamic State in the Sahel now operate less as rogue insurgents than as entrenched power brokers whose reach across Niger, Mali, and Burkina Faso. For the United States, the massacre is more than a humanitarian catastrophe - it is a sobering reminder that the doctrine of forward defense faces its most formidable test yet in Africa's most fragile frontier."

""The threat from Sahelian jihadists is really two-fold," Caleb Weiss, editor of FDD's Long War Journal, tells The Cipher Brief. "They are destabilizing wider West Africa, particularly the Gulf of Guinea states, which have been firm U.S. and Western allies. And secondly, there is worry about European security if jihadis in the Sahel are allowed to operate freely. The Sahel can become a base of operations from which to launch or even sponsor attacks into continental Europe.""

""There are two primary terrorist threats that can be identified," he tells The Cipher Brief. "First of all, the rapid expansion of the al-Qaeda affiliate JNIM as well as the ISIS affiliates ISSP and ISWAP in the Sahel region has destabilized several countries, in particular Burkina Faso, Mali and to a growing extent also Niger, with continuing serious security problems in the North of Nigeria.""

Manda became another town reduced to a symbol of terror as Islamic State in the Sahel shifted from insurgent cells to entrenched power brokers across Niger, Mali and Burkina Faso. The massacre underscores the limits of state control and the challenge to forward defense doctrine for the United States. Sahelian jihadists destabilize West Africa, threaten Gulf of Guinea allies, and risk creating a base to launch or sponsor attacks into continental Europe. The rapid expansion of al-Qaeda affiliate JNIM and ISIS affiliates ISSP and ISWAP has destabilized multiple countries, particularly Burkina Faso, Mali and increasingly Niger, with ongoing security problems in northern Nigeria.

Read at The Cipher Brief