TIG Post

Tag: jihadist

  • Prevailing uncertainty in Niger serves as a gift to jihadists

    Prevailing uncertainty in Niger serves as a gift to jihadists

    Niger is currently facing a complex and challenging situation with no apparent favorable solutions. The West is at risk of losing its strategic counter-terrorism bases in the region, and any military intervention by Ecowas could potentially trigger a civil war.

    As the evacuation of French nationals proceeds, there are concerns about the subsequent abandonment of US and French military bases, leading to the withdrawal of their 2,500 troops involved in supporting Niger’s fight against jihadist insurgents.

    Amidst this uncertainty, it is evident that the population of Niger will not benefit. Although the presence of Western forces was not universally popular, the country received significant financial aid and military assistance, which has now ceased.

    The sudden appearance of Russian flags on the streets raises suspicions that Russia’s Wagner mercenary group might seize the opportunity to fill the void left by the departing troops.

    For jihadist groups like Boko Haram, al-Qaeda, and Islamic State, active in the Sahel region, this disruption and uncertainty serve as a strategic advantage, providing them with opportunities to exploit the situation.

  • Villagers in Mozambique: “Jihadists are gone, but we have no food”

    Villagers in Mozambique: “Jihadists are gone, but we have no food”

    Families who were compelled to flee their homes in northern Mozambique due to the violence caused by Islamist militants are now facing a dire food shortage upon returning.

    Having been unable to cultivate their land in the Nangade district, these families lament the lack of assistance provided by both the government and humanitarian organizations.

    As a result, residents have resorted to subsisting on wild yams known as mingõko and are constructing their own huts by cutting grass.

    The Nangade district, situated in the resource-rich province of Cabo Delgado, has become an attractive target for jihadists who seek to exploit its valuable natural resources.

    Since 2017, these militants have been engaged in conflict with the government, resulting in the deaths of over 4,000 individuals and the displacement of 800,000 people from their homes within the province.

    In Nangade, families have been able to return to their villages after Mozambican security forces and international allies successfully expelled the militants.

  • Village in northern Mali taken over by jihadist

    Village in northern Mali taken over by jihadist

    An Islamic State-affiliated Mali jihadist organization has taken control of a village in Ménaka, which is now largely under militant control.

    Following months of warfare, the Islamist terrorists captured another village, Tidermene, on Monday night.

    The terrorists were reportedly going around the area with guns, according to a local official who escaped to the regional seat Ménaka and confirmed the capture.

    In this area as well as in Gao, another province of northern Mali, Islamic State in the Greater Sahara has begun a significant attack since early last year.

    In addition to former Tuareg rebels who agreed to a peace agreement in 2015, there have been conflicts with fighters linked to Al-Qaeda.

    Source: The Independent Ghana

  • Attack in Mali leaves five people dead

    Attack in Mali leaves five people dead

    Authorities said on Tuesday that five people were killed in an attack by unknown gunmen in south-east Mali, about 80 kilometers (50 miles) from the nation’s capital Bamako.

    The victims comprised three civilians and two firefighters who were members of a civil defence force.

    Military ceremonies and burials for the two service members are due for Wednesday, the AFP news agency reports.

    Monday’s attack is said to have happened in a part of the country where violence is rare while a jihadist insurgency rages in the central and northern regions.

    Source: BBC

  • Thirty jihadist suspects killed in Mozambique – Samim

    The Military Mission of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), best known as Samim, deployed as part of the fight against terrorism in Cabo Delgado in northern Mozambique, says it has killed 30 suspected jihadists in an operation launched last Tuesday.

    Weapons used by the jihadist suspects have also been recovered.

    The SADC military mission also announced that two of its soldiers, one from Botswana and the other from Tanzania, lost their lives in the operation in the woods of Nkonga village, in the district of Nangade, north of Cabo Delgado.

     

    Nangade still has strongholds of jihadists, who have carried out daily attacks against villages, farms and military positions.

    Recently, Tanzanian forces integrated in the SADC military mission fell into an ambush and five soldiers were injured. During the ambush, the jihadists seized weapons.

    Source: BBC

     

  • Mali denies jihadist dominance of the country’s north

    The Malian Armed Forces (FAMa) have denied allegations that the Islamic State (IS) group, whose presence there has grown since French forces departed the nation in August, is about to take control of the north-eastern Menaka region.

    “This is not true. These are falsehoods, attempts at propaganda, attempts to destabilise the Malian armed forces… Menaka is not under siege, less still Tessit or Ansongo [in neighbouring Gao region],” FAMa’s public relations director-general Col Souleymane Dembele said in a briefing on Monday.

    He also said the army has been frequently patrolling the region.

    The remarks coincide with plans by leading trade unions in Gao to begin a two-day strike today to protest against the military government’s apparent inaction against growing Islamist militant attacks.

    This is worsened by nearly daily reports of kidnappings, armed robberies and livestock theft by criminal gangs that move between the volatile borderlands.

    Reports emerged on Monday of an audio message purportedly belonging to the leader of a prominent pro-government militia – the Self-Defence Group of Imghad Tuaregs and Their Allies (Gatia) – urging members of the Tuareg community in Mali and neighbouring countries to take up arms against the IS.

    Tuareg militia have been at the frontline of fighting against the IS, which has been accused of massacring hundreds of civilians in Menaka since March.

    Late last month, deadly clashes between fighters from IS and rivals from al-Qaeda’s Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) erupted over the control of Menaka, forcing thousands of residents to flee.

    Although the army has been receiving support from Russian mercenaries who arrived in December, French troops’ hasty departure upended nearly a decade of efforts to stabilise the Sahel nation.

    Since the insurgency broke out in 2012, Malian authorities have lost control of vast parts of the country.

    Source: BBC

  • Uganda finds jihadist bomb-training facility – army

    Uganda’s military says it has discovered bomb-making material at what it called a training facility west of the capital, Kampala.

    It said it belonged to the rebel Allied Democratic Forces – a Ugandan militia that has pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group.

    The authorities recovered nails, wires and bullets from a tunnel dug in one of the rooms of a house.

    Three people have been detained – police say they had already bought a car and were planning an attack.

    The ADF has been blamed for a series of bomb attacks in Uganda late last year.

    Source: BBC