ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) – Jihadi fighters who had long operated in Africa’s volatile Sahel region have settled in northwestern Nigeria after crossing from neighboring Benin, according to a report released Wednesday. This marks the latest trend in the militants’ movements toward wealthier West African coastal nations.
Extremists linked to al-Qaida crossed over from Benin’s hard-hit northern region over the past year and settled in Kainji Lake National Park, one of Nigeria’s largest parks. Other armed groups have also gained access to this area, the Clingendael Institute think tank reported. The institute has conducted extensive research in the Sahel.
Residents near the park told The Associated Press that authorities closed the facility, which hosts one of West Africa’s rapidly declining lion populations, more than a year ago due to security threats from armed groups attacking nearby villages and roads.
“Before, it was like a tourism center, but now, people find it difficult to pass through there,” said John Yerima, a resident of New Bussa town near the park. “You cannot enter that road leading to the park now. It is seriously dangerous.”
The security situation at the 5,300-square-kilometer (2,000-square-mile) park in Niger state and along the border with Benin is “getting out of hand” and is “a much more explosive situation than we had anticipated,” said Kars de Bruijne, a senior research fellow at the Clingendael Institute and one of the report’s authors.
The “sustained presence” of armed groups in the park signals the first connection between Nigeria’s homegrown extremists, who have waged a decade-long insurgency in the northern region, and al-Qaida-linked militants from the Sahel, the vast arid region south of the Sahara Desert, de Bruijne said. Their presence could allow the extremists to claim large-scale success in both countries, which have already suffered deadly attacks in recent years, he added.
Known as a global hotspot for violent extremism, the Sahel region’s worsening security crisis coincides with military coups toppling democratic governments. As military governments struggle to contain the violence, they are increasingly severing security ties with traditional partners France and the United States, turning instead to Russia for support.
In northwest Nigeria, security analysts have previously warned that the region’s remote territories, largely abandoned by the government but rich in mineral resources and afflicted by high poverty levels, provide an opportunity for expansion for jihadi groups that have mainly operated in the Sahel, as well as for the Islamic State group, whose fighters control parts of the Lake Chad basin.
“A link between Lake Chad and the Sahel is a major opportunity for al-Qaida and the Islamic State to boost their profiles as leaders of global jihad,” the report stated.
Conservationists are also concerned that the presence of armed groups in the park could further threaten the remaining lion populations, already in decline due to climate change and poaching.
“The security situation has become a top concern for the lion populations in Nigeria,” said Stella Egbe, senior conservation manager at the Nigerian Conservation Foundation.
The Clingendael report noted that the motives of the Sahel extremists in the park remain unclear, as does their relationship with other armed groups there. Security analysts suggest that the park offers opportunities for logistics and greater influence amid booming illegal trade across the porous border.
“The Sahelian jihadis could potentially use northwestern Nigeria for fundraising, logistics, and to influence the jihadi groups there as part of their own competition,” said James Barnett, a fellow at the Hudson Institute who contributed to the report.
Despite the rise of jihadi fighters, banditry remains the primary security threat across many villages in Nigeria’s northwest, Barnett noted. The bandits have occasionally collaborated with jihadi fighters in carrying out attacks, but even these rare collaborations can have “very deadly consequences,” he added.
