The number of people killed in Africa’s central Sahel region is surging this year, contradicting the claims by the military rulers of Mali, Burkina Faso and now Niger that they are tackling insecurity.
Insurgents, armed groups, state forces and foreign mercenaries have killed at least 7,800 civilians in the area during the first seven months of this year, Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project data shows.
Worst hit is Burkina Faso, which suffered two coups in 2022, followed by Mali, where the military took control in 2020 followed by a further change of government by force a year later. The head of Niger’s presidential guard declared himself the new leader of the uranium-rich country last month, what would be the sixth successful coup in the past three years across the impoverished region.
Read More: What’s Driving Coups in Niger and Across West Africa?: QuickTake
Some of the attacks are being carried out by groups affiliated with Islamic State and al-Qaeda, long active in the region.
“Military leaders in those countries struggle to contain Islamist insurgencies,” said Jose Luengo-Cabrera, the United Nations Development Programme analyst who compiled the Acled data.
Mali’s rulers have engineered the departure of both French and United Nations troops and now relies on about 1,000 mercenaries from Russia’s Wagner group to support its military.
In Burkina Faso, militants laying siege to towns and villages have left more than 40,000 people at risk of starvation, according to the International Rescue Committee. They have displaced over 2 million people, according to data analyzed by Luengo-Cabrera.
By contrast the number of people killed in Niger, which was under civilian rule until the July 26 coup, declined.
The new leaders in Niger have criticized the government of ousted leader, Mohamed Bazoum, for negotiating with some groups in the insurgency and releasing some leaders that had been imprisoned.
France maintains a 1,500 strong force in Niger, though the new rulers have ended the military agreement. The US has a $110 million drone base in the nation’s desert town of Agadez and about 1,000 US soldiers are deployed there to train Nigerien special forces.
