Customary Leaders and Terrorism in the Sahel: Co-opted, Coerced, or Killed?

For over a decade, the Sahel region has been confronted with the presence of al-Qaeda and Islamic State-affiliated organisations, various non-state armed groups, and communal militias, and has continued to witness ever increasing levels of violence. Burkina Faso, Mali, and Niger were all among the ten countries having recorded the largest increases in deaths from terrorism worldwide in 2021, with deaths having risen by over one thousand percent since 2007. Since the breakout of the Malian crisis in 2012, communities living in affected regions, and their local leaders have increasingly been caught between terrorist violence and counter-terrorism operations.

‘Why Kaduna is vulnerable to attacks despite military presence’

Members of the National Assembly, yesterday, resumed plenary, placing last week’s terrorist attack on a Kaduna-bound train on the front burner. While the leadership of the House of Representatives held a closed-door meeting with service chiefs over recent upsurge in insecurity across the country, the Senate once again urged President Muhammadu Buhari to as a matter of urgency declare a full-fledged war on terrorists.