Title: U.S. Military Operational Activity in the Sahel - Lawfare
Headings: U.S. Military Operational Activity in the Sahel
U.S. Military Operational Activity in the Sahel
Groups Operating in the Sahel/Lake Chad Basin Regions
Boko Haram
Islamic State West Africa (ISWA)
ISIS in the Greater Sahara (ISIS-GS)
Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal Muslimeen (JNIM)
Current State of U.S. Operational Activity in These Regions
Niger
Cameroon
Nigeria
Chad
Mali
Where Are We Now?
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Content: Its overarching goal was to establish an Islamic state in Nigeria. While it operated mostly peacefully for several years, the group grew steadily more violent as militant Islamists used its camps as breeding grounds for jihadi soldiers. Boko Haram’s evolution into a terrorist group culminated in 2009, when it carried out a series of attacks on Nigerian police and government buildings. Though a joint response by Nigerian police and military forces eventually halted the attacks, the clashes resulted in the deaths of upwards of 700 people in Maiduguri, the capital of the northeastern state of Borno. And despite Nigerian authorities’ subsequent execution of Boko Haram’s leader, Boko Haram continued to attack civilian and government targets over the next several years. Nigerian security forces lacked the capacity to contain Boko Haram, so the group’s activities and influence spread throughout the Lake Chad Basin region. Boko Haram carried out numerous mass abductions, including the April 2014 kidnapping of more than 250 Nigerian schoolgirls. From 2013 to 2015, the group’s violent tactics, including raids and suicide bombings, forced 2.3 million people in Nigeria to leave their homes, with a quarter of a million fleeing into the neighboring states of Cameroon, Chad and Niger. Since the beginning of the conflict, it is estimated that Boko Haram has caused the deaths of upwards of 20,000 people. In early 2015, the governments of Chad, Cameroon, Niger, Nigeria and Benin launched a multilateral military effort authorized by the African Union against Boko Haram.