The strong resurgence of terrorist attacks in the border triangle between Mali, Burkina and Niger is primarily due to the fragility of the political conditions in those countries, two of which witnessed military coups during the past two years (Mali and Burkina Faso), while Niger - despite the emerging democracy - plunged into extreme poverty. It ranks among the poorest countries in the world as a whole.
The border triangle between the three countries, known as (Lipatko Gourma), is considered an ideal environment for the movements of jihadist groups, where security oversight is almost non-existent, as well as cross-border tribal overlaps and entanglements, and the absence of development among its residents, from the Tuareg and Fulani tribes who graze camels and cattle, and wander about In large areas of the continent without being bound by borders, and these constitute the main human source for jihadist groups.
The triangle of terrorism, between Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger, is inhabited by pastoral groups of Fulani and Tuareg, who are not inclined to violence by nature, and tend in their religious style to tolerant mysticism, and therefore the current crisis is political with economic, developmental and security dimensions, not religious in any case And looking deeply into the demography of the triangle will not bother to discover the impact of violence on reducing fragile livelihoods and crippling the ability of the population to support themselves, as more of them flee in search of safety, and 2.1 million people have been internally displaced in Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, while suffering 1 million people are acutely food insecure, and 13 million need humanitarian support.
There are three terrorist groups; Ansar al-Islam, a local group, later merged into Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimin, which is linked to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, along with two groups across the border from Mali, the Islamic State in West Africa Province, and Jamaat Nusrat al-Islam wa al-Muslimin, operating in central and northern Mali. In Burkina Faso, it is recruiting Ansar al-Islam fighters active in the Som region, as well as in the west of the country, and is expanding its activity to the eastern regions.
ISIS left its mark in the town of Talatite, northern Mali, in a major massacre that included burning, looting and starvation, as part of a struggle to impose control and influence on border areas with al-Qaeda and local terrorist movements.
“The Tlatet massacre is a picture of the strategy of terror that the organization detonated and trained in Syria and Iraq, and transferred to West Africa to achieve the agenda of external parties.”
Last week, ISIS committed the massacre, following a tripartite conflict in the municipality of Tlatet, 150 km from Gaoua, northern Mali, between ISIS in the Sahara (ISIS branch in West Africa). Al-Qaeda affiliate, the “National Support of Islam and Muslims” group, and the “Salvation of Azawad” (MSA) movement backed by the Malian army, and each party aims to control Tlait.
After the battles, sources stated, “ISIS killed more than 30 civilians, and 3 fighters, including an officer from the Movement for the Rescue of Azawad (MSA), and committed crimes of burning, destruction and starvation.”
ISIS was forced to withdraw, following the arrival of reinforcements to the (MSA) movement led by Musa Ag Ashgatman.
According to the sources, Talatite is now under the control of the “Save Azawad” movement, which began providing aid to the families of the victims of the ISIS massacre and the people of the town, and stated that it “found the women and children without food for two days, after the organization looted the area and burned the shops.
Regarding the keenness of ISIS to commit massacres, looting and arson against civilians, the representative of the “National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad” in Mauritania.
The organization practices an approach of terror and intimidation of the population, to force them to obey it, in continuation of its method of Iraq, Syria, and others.
a further goal, which is that the organization wants to create a wide geographical area for it in the triangle of borders between Mali, Niger and Algeria, or between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso, to achieve its dream of establishing the Emirate of D.A.A.
ISIS seeks to control areas close to the borders with Niger and Burkina Faso, to facilitate the smuggling of weapons, fighters, goods and illegal immigrants, and uses all Its tools for that, including displacement.
One of the organization’s goals is also to displace the population in certain places, in agreement with external parties, in preparation for the exploitation of their oil and gas.
the Coordination of Azawad Movements” (Sima) is fully prepared to cooperate with everyone to defend the region, provided that we agree on a political vision for the region of Azawad, and stand united in the face of strangers regardless of their their names.
But he points to what he considers an obstacle, which is that Sima presented the idea of coordinating the Azawad movements, within the framework of a unified conception of who the enemy is, but the (platform) movements did not agree with them.
There is also another obstacleis : the lack of coordination between some Azawad movements and the Malian army due to the lack of trust between the two sides; The army accuses these movements of seeking to separate Azawad province from the state, while these movements accuse the army of persecuting them.
Terrorism has risen in Burkina Faso, Mali and western Niger faster than any other region in Africa, up 140 percent since 2020.
This resulted in the deaths of 8,000 people, and the displacement of 2.5 million, according to the report of the Africa Center for Strategic Studies, based in Washington, while the number of victims of ISIS attacks alone, during 2022, reached about a thousand people.