Sahel, still ‘epicenter of global terrorism’- report

The landlocked Sahel region remains on top of the list of regions most hit by the scourge of terrorism, according to the Global Terrorism Index (GTI) which calls it the “epicenter of global terrorism.”

Years of infighting, porous borders and connivance between terror groups and states like Algeria made the Sahel a fertile ground for the mushrooming of terrorist organizations that have also engaged in organized crime including kidnaping for ransom and all sort of trafficking.

Out of 7555 terrorism deaths in 2024, 3885 lost their lives in the Sahel, where many groups sprouted from the Algerian groups to form Al Qaeda in the Maghreb and later IS.

While the global figure has declined from a peak of 11,000 in 2015 the figure for the Sahel has increased nearly tenfold since 2019, as extremist and insurgent groups “continue to shift their focus” towards the region, the GTI said.

IS-Sahel has reportedly doubled the amount of territory it controls in Mali since the country’s coups of 2020 and 2021 – largely in the east near its borders with Burkina Faso and Niger – while JNIM also continued to expand its reach, according to a UN panel of experts on Mali, said GTI, a report conducted by the Institute for Economics and Peace, a think-tank dedicated to researching global peace and conflict.

In 2024, Burkina Faso “remained the country most affected by terrorism for the second year in a row” according to the GTI.