(New York, N.Y.) — This week, the Counter Extremism Project (CEP) published a pair of new reports, Development Of Al-Qaeda In The Western Sahel Region and Status Of ISWAP And ISGS In West Africa And Sahel. These reports are the first of a range of policy papers produced as part of a year-long joint project with the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS). This project focuses on the various elements of instability in this region. These first two papers explore how Jamaat Nusrat Al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), a coalition of various al-Qaeda affiliates in West Africa, and regional ISIS affiliates, Islamic State in West Africa Province (ISWAP) and Islamic State in Great Sahel (ISGS), have developed operationally in the region in recent years.
In the first paper, Development Of Al-Qaeda In The Western Sahel Region, CEP Advisory Board member Ambassador Edmund Fitton-Brown and Bakary Sambe, director of the Timbuktu Institute-African Center for Peace Studies, analyze the structure of JNIM, how it is financed, and how its various groups operate jointly. The paper also identifies potential challenges that may arise from expanded JNIM activity from Mali and Burkina Faso as the group expands southward into the countries surrounding the Gulf of Guinea.
The authors propose several counterterrorism strategies that prioritize locally-led conflict resolution solutions with support from the international community and the United Nations. Combined with conflict resolution measures and development goals, their country-specific recommendations may effectively address JNIM’s expanding influence in the region and the growth of local insurgencies that threaten stability of national governments.
In the second paper, Status Of ISWAP And ISGS In West Africa And Sahel, authors Pieter Van Ostaeyen along with Kwesi Aning, professor and director of faculty of academic affairs and research at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Centre, explore the origins of the two most prominent Islamic State-affiliated extremist groups in the Sahel, ISWAP and ISGS, as well as their implementation of Islamic laws and exploitation of local communities.
The paper identifies the extremist groups’ harsh implementation of takfiri doctrines, which are theological declarations denoting any Muslim who does not adhere to a strict interpretation of Islamic law as an ‘apostate’ who should therefore be killed. This strict interpretation of Islamic law as well as ISGS and ISWAP’s collection of the zakat, a tax that typically amounts to 10 percent of an individual’s income, places both extremist groups in a position of power and wealth in communities throughout the region. The authors recommend that policymakers support local stakeholders that contribute to community resilience, initiate security sector governance and reform measures, and establish border security cooperation councils, among other recommendations.
To read Development Of Al-Qaeda In The Western Sahel Region, please click here.
To read Status Of ISWAP And ISGS In West Africa And Sahel, please click here.