Burkina Faso: Fears Grow Over Domestic Militant Threat
| Publisher | Jamestown Foundation |
| Author | Alexander Sehmer |
| Publication Date | 7 April 2017 |
| Citation / Document Symbol | Terrorism Monitor Volume: 15 Issue: 7 |
| Cite as | Jamestown Foundation, Burkina Faso: Fears Grow Over Domestic Militant Threat, 7 April 2017, Terrorism Monitor Volume: 15 Issue: 7, available at: http://www.refworld.org/docid/58ee2dc74.html [accessed 26 June 2017] |
| Disclaimer | This is not a UNHCR publication. UNHCR is not responsible for, nor does it necessarily endorse, its content. Any views expressed are solely those of the author or publisher and do not necessarily reflect those of UNHCR, the United Nations or its Member States. |
Link to original story on Jamestown website
A series of attacks in rural Burkina Faso have raised concerns over an increasingly active homegrown jihadist militant group operating in the West African country's remote north.
A fire at a primary school in Baraboule, in northern Burkina Faso's Soum province, on March 14, prompted reports of a suspected jihadist attack. Some claimed that armed men had abducted students, while others said the fire had simply been started accidentally (MaliActu, March 15). Locals are jittery following a series of reported incidents in schools closer to the border with Mali, where armed men have insisted teachers conduct lessons in Arabic rather than French (Burkina Online, January 31).
It is unclear who is menacing the schools, but local jihadist outfit Ansarul Islam, headed by radical preacher Ibrahim Malaam Dicko, is considered the most likely contender. The group is also thought to have been behind attacks on two Soum police stations on February 27 (Africa News, February 28). It claimed an attack in December of last year on a military base in Nassoumbou that killed 12 soldiers. Likewise, it claimed involvement in the attack on the Splendid Hotel in Ouagadougou, the Burkinabe capital, in January 2016, in which 29 people were killed — the attack was originally attributed to militants across the border in Mali (Burkina Online, December 28, 2016; al-Jazeera, January 18, 2016).
A native of Soum province, Dicko began preaching on local radio in Djibo town in 2012. He travelled to Mali in 2013, where he was arrested by French troops and held by Malian authorities for two years before being released. He founded Ansarul Islam upon his return. Dicko has been closely linked to Amadou Koufa, the Malian founder of the Macina Liberation Front, with strong ties to Ansar Dine. According to some reports, he was briefly detained in Mali again in 2015, following a meeting with Koufa (Intellivoire, January 4).
The emergence of Dicko's group has prompted Burkina Faso to step up its counter-terrorism efforts. President Roch Marc Christian Kabore replaced his military chief, Pingrenoma Zagre, in December last year, and announced plans for the deployment of more troops near the Mali border (Le Faso, December 28, 2016).
A public outcry following the Nassoumbou attack appears to have made Zagre's position untenable. His replacement, Oumarou Sadou, hails from Djibo, possibly making him more familiar with the remote area where Dicko's group is based. Already, the security forces have hit back — on March 23, an army raid on an Ansarul Islam base killed one of the group's leaders, but was unable to locate Dicko himself (Sahel Intelligence, March 24).
Despite the Nassoumbou attack and the reported incidents at schools in Soum, the main jihadist threat to Burkina Faso likely continues to come from across the border in Mali. But Ansarul Islam's capacity remains unclear and it is too early to tell how effective Sadou will be at stamping out Burkina Faso's own militant Islamists.
