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| An undated image of ISIS fighters in Burkina Faso released on March 22, 2019. The ISGS fighters were placed in Islamic State West Africa Province, and the image was likely taken in December 2018 |
Islamic State claimed fighters from its
West Africa Province affiliate carried out an August attack in Koutougou in
northern Burkina Faso that killed 24 soldiers, the country’s worst-ever
insurgent attack.
Burkina Faso’s military said 24 soldiers
were killed and seven others injured on August 19 in a “major attack by armed
terrorist groups” in the Koutougou department of Soum province in the northern
Sahel Region which borders Mali.
“Several dozen terrorists” on motorbikes
and in pickup trucks carried out the attack, a security source later told AFP.
“It’s clearly an attack that was well-prepared and coordinated by several
terrorist groups. They fired heavy weapons, including rockets, which set fire
to several installations, transport and weaponry.”
In issue 200 of the weekly al-Naba propaganda
magazine posted on social media on Thursday, September 19, ISIS claimed its
fighters were responsible for the Koutougou attack, but repeated information
that had previously been published.
It said ISWAP fighters “attacked a military
base of the Burkina Faso army in the area of Koutougou in the middle of last
month, leading to 24 deaths in their ranks and a large number of wounded.”
It said survivors fled, “leaving the
Mujahideen to take control of the whole area and set fires, burning and destroying
vehicles and armor, and capturing various ammunition and weapons.”
Prior to Koutougou, the heaviest Islamist
militant attack against Burkina Faso’s security forces left 12 soldiers dead at
Nassoumbou, also in Soum province, in December 2016.
Since May, Islamic State
has attributed insurgent activities in the Mali-Burkina Faso-Niger tri-border
area to its West Africa Province affiliate, rather than to what was
previously known as Islamic State in the Greater Sahara. In a June 15 ISIS
propaganda video, ISWAP militants purportedly in Burkina Faso were shown
reaffirming their pledge of allegiance to ISIS.
In May, Burkina Faso
called for an international coalition to tackle terrorism in the Sahel.
That was echoed in July, when President Mahamadou Issoufou of Niger called
for the creation of an “international coalition” modeled on the alliance that
fought ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
There may be trans-Atlantic support for a
new initiative – officials said in August that the U.S. will
seek additional contributions from the Global Coalition Against ISIS to combat
the group and its affiliates in Africa.
Earlier this week, the new Commander of
U.S. Africa Command General Stephen Townsend made his first trip as commander
to the Sahel, visiting Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger. Townsend
was previously in charge of Coalition troops fighting ISIS in Iraq and Syria as
Commander of Combined
Joint Task Force – Operation Inherent Resolve.
“It is important for the U.S. to continue
to support the international effort taking place in Burkina Faso while
containing the spread of terrorism,” Townsend said on Wednesday.
Burkinabé
forces recently partnered with the Washington, D.C. National Guard as
part of a comprehensive training program, but Townsend poured cold water on a
potential U.S. military deployment.
“I don’t think we should expect a military
presence or combat troops on the ground as is the case with some French
troops,” he said.
Neighboring Niger hosts an estimated 800
U.S. troops, the largest American deployment in Africa. The U.S. is building a large and controversial air base known as Niger Air Base 201 in the northern city
of Agadez. The U.S. Air Force began regular operations there in August, with C-130J
Super Hercules transport aircraft flying limited missions into the facility.
Niger recently gave the Americans
permission to arm drones stationed there, and MQ-9 Reapers are set
to start flying missions from the base by the end of the
year. Armed U.S drones already fly from Air Base 101 near the capital Niamey,
around 800 km southwest of Agadez.
Upsurge in attacks in Burkina Faso
One of the poorest countries in the world,
former French colony Burkina Faso lies in the heart of the sprawling,
impoverished Sahel, on the southern rim of the Sahara desert.
The country has been battling an escalating
wave of attacks over the last three years, beginning in the North region near
the border with Mali. Attacks have spread to the East region, near the border
with Togo, Benin and Niger, and to a lesser extent, the west of the country.
Most attacks are attributed to the Group to
Support Islam and Muslims (JNIM) which has sworn allegiance to
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, but also to Ansar ul Islam, which emerged near
the Mali border in December 2016, and to Islamic State-affiliated groups.
Multinational efforts to fight Sahel insurgency
Burkina Faso is also part of the G5 Sahel Joint Force, the
long-planned 4,500-strong joint counter-terrorism coalition that also includes
troops from Chad, Mali, Niger and Mauritania.
France spearheaded the
G5 Sahel initiative, but it has been undermined by lack of training, poor
equipment and a shortage of funds. United Nations Secretary-General
Antonio Guterres has long-called for regular U.N. funding for the G5 Sahel Joint
Force, but the U.S. has pushed back against direct funding, preferring
instead bilateral funding for individual states.
In a September 5 statement, JNIM reinforced its opposition to former colonial
power France, warning G5 Sahel governments that attacks against their forces
would continue while they support the France-led Operation
Barkhane counter-terrorism force.
The 4,500-strong Barkhane force has mandate
for counter-terrorism operations across the Sahel and includes personnel
from Estonia and
helicopters from the United
Kingdom. Denmark plans
send two helicopters and up to 70 troops to support the force.
Barkhane focuses activity in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger,
and troops work alongside international operations, including MINUSMA, the United
Nations stabilization mission in Mali.
On September 14, ECOWAS
leaders at an Extraordinary Summit on Counter-Terrorism decided
to mobilize “up to a billion dollars for the fight against terrorism,” Niger’s
President Mahamadou Issoufou said.
The money, paid into a common fund from
2020 to 2024, will help reinforce the military operations of the nations
involved, and those of the joint military operations in the region. Full
details of the plan will be presented to the next ECOWAS summit in December.
With reporting from AFP
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