Nigeria and the Sahel: a growing security divide
A widening diplomatic rift between Nigeria and the military-led governments of the Sahel is making it harder for West African states to coordinate responses to cross-border jihadist violence, according to Al Jazeera.
Nigeria, West Africa’s largest economy and a long-standing democratic anchor in the region, has for more than a decade been at the centre of efforts to combat armed groups including Boko Haram and Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP) in the Lake Chad Basin. That fight has always depended on cooperation with neighbouring countries, particularly Niger, Chad and Cameroon.
A bloc pulls away
That cooperation has grown more difficult since military juntas took power in Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger between 2020 and 2023. The three countries have since formed the Alliance of Sahel States, announced their withdrawal from the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) and moved closer to Moscow through the deployment of Russian military personnel previously associated with the Wagner group. Nigeria, a leading ECOWAS member, has advocated a diplomatic approach to the crises in the Sahel rather than the punitive sanctions the bloc initially pursued.
A shared, expanding threat
The security challenge is not diminishing. Armed groups linked to al-Qaeda and Islamic State have expanded their reach southward from the central Sahel toward the coastal states of West Africa, including Togo, Benin, Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, while continuing to threaten Niger and northern Nigeria. Observers have warned that fragmentation among West African governments weakens intelligence sharing, joint operations and the coordination needed to contain the threat.
For Nigeria, the divide raises the prospect of managing a complex insurgency with a less reliable set of regional partners, even as the geography of the violence continues to shift beyond the borders it once knew.
Sources
This report was written from coverage published by the following news organisations. Follow the links for the original reporting.
- Al Jazeera — Nigeria and the Sahel: A growing security divide
