Benin Grapples With Spread of Sahel Violence

ADF STAFF

Benin recorded its first incident of extremist violence in 2019, and the number of recorded attacks by Sahelian terror organizations on Beninese soil has risen every year since.

There were 20 attacks — mostly by the al-Qaida-affiliated Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), but also by the Islamic State group (IS) — in 2022 and 40 in 2023, according to The Defense Post.

The Beninese Army said last year that the country experienced the sharpest rise in extremist militant attacks in Africa as terror groups from neighboring Burkina Faso and Niger increasingly targeted northern Benin, particularly in the W-Arly-Pendjari (WAP) complex of parks.

Between July 2023 and July 2024, the number of deaths in Benin due to extremist violence doubled to 173 over the previous one-year time frame, according to the Africa Center for Strategic Studies (ACSS).

Throughout the extensive 34,000-square-kilometer (13,100-square-mile) WAP complex, park rangers trained to combat poaching now are on the front lines of the country’s war on terror.

“The jihadists are able to navigate through the park [complex] quite easily, particularly on the Burkina and Niger side,” Ibrahim Yahaya Ibrahim, deputy director of the International Crisis Group’s Sahel Project, told Mongabay. “The Benin authorities are trying to control their portion of the park, which exposes them to attacks.”

That happened July 28, when terrorists in W National Park killed at least seven Beninese security forces and five rangers working with a nonprofit organization.

The spread of extremist violence is exacerbated by the growing number of JNIM kidnappings in northern Benin, where 75 kidnapping or attempted kidnapping incidents were reported last year, more than triple the number recorded in 2022, according to The Defense Post. There were fewer than 25 reported kidnapping incidents in Benin between 2016 and 2021.

JNIM and the IS are known to kidnap people to spread fear and generate income through ransom payments.

“Perhaps most importantly, kidnappings help gradually erode the belief that the state is the primary security provider,” analyst Charlie Werb wrote in The Defense Post.

In response to the security threats, Beninese authorities have mobilized 3,000 Soldiers to northern Benin through Operation Mirador. Another 4,000 Soldiers are deployed there on a rotating and seasonal basis. The Beninese military also has recruited about 1,000 local forces to enhance intelligence capabilities in the north.

However, as the ACSS reported, the sudden presence of military forces has fueled tensions between farmer and pastoralist communities and inadvertently deepened grievances that locals have against the government.

Werb argued that the Beninese government can better address the socioeconomic pressures faced by farmers and pastoralists in the park complex by reopening areas that were closed due to insecurity; this could help decrease conflict. A strategy aimed at providing sustainable economic opportunities in the region also should be considered, he wrote.

Werb also called for increased military cooperation with Burkina Faso and Niger. In 2022, Benin signed a military cooperation agreement with Niger that aimed to strengthen cross-border security, but Niger’s ruling military junta broke the agreement after it took power in July 2023. Niger has kept its side of the border closed for about a year.

Since 2021, Benin also has faced increasing security threats from Nigerian bandits from Katsina and Zamfara states. Bandit warlords in northwest Nigeria are known to clash and collaborate with violent extremists.

Residents in Beninese border communities say Nigerian bandits have built houses in Kalale, Kandi, Malanville and Sokotindji, all communities with a history of cross-border trade and pastoralism.

“Surprisingly, bandit activity deeper within Benin is reemerging in areas where JNIM is now operating,” including in the Cobli, Kandi, Karimama, Malanville, Materi and Touncountoun communes, researcher Kars de Bruiijne, head of the Sahel program at the Clingendael Institute, wrote for African Arguments. “Information from Benin suggests several of these bandit incidents involve Nigerians.”

Because political conditions in the Sahel are less conducive to  counterterrorism cooperation, Benin and Nigeria should consider ways to strengthen bilateral cross-border cooperation to counter security threats, de Bruiijne wrote.

He added that the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS) might have an opportunity to support counterterrorism efforts along border zones.

“If not, in another five years, the picture along the Benin-Niger-Nigeria border zones may look even more concerning than it does today,” de Bruiijne wrote.