Ladd Serwat
Senior Analyst, Africa
Héni Nsaibia
Senior Analyst, West Africa
Jalale Getachew Birru
Senior Analyst, East Africa
Peter Bofin
Senior Analyst, Southeast Africa
In May, Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP) claimed its first operations in Nigeria in more than six years. The claimed attacks include an attack that killed 10 soldiers near Giro Masa in the Shanga local government area of Kebbi state on 24 March and another attack near the village of Rumji Dan Tudu in the Illela local government area of Sokoto state on 16 May, which killed seven soldiers.
1 These claims are significant as ISSP had not made any official claim of violence in Nigeria since October 2019, when it first officially announced having entered Sokoto by carrying out an attack in the town of Balle in the Gudu local government area.
2 For years, confusion and debate have surrounded the affiliation of militants locally referred to as the Lakurawa and their links to violent Islamist groups operating in the region. However, ISSP's claims of attacks attributed locally to the Lakurawa on both sides of the Niger-Nigeria border increasingly clarify that the Lakurawa are an integral component of ISSP's presence in the borderlands rather than a distinct armed group.
The ISSP claims also come amid parallel violent campaigns by Sahelian jihadist groups in the Benin, Niger, and Nigeria borderlands. While ISSP has publicized its growing presence along the Niger-Nigeria border since last December, its rival Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM) has carried out several large-scale attacks elsewhere in the region. Last month in Niger, JNIM overran a National Guard camp in the town of Kirtachi, killing at least 12 soldiers and taking seven others prisoner.
3 Meanwhile, in Benin, the group launched a coordinated attack on military positions in Koualou, a border town in an area disputed by Benin and Burkina Faso, killing several soldiers and civilians.
4 In both attacks, JNIM also seized large quantities of weapons, ammunition, and other materiel. These developments illustrate the deepening entrenchment of Sahelian jihadist groups in the coastal West Africa borderlands, where both ISSP and JNIM are demonstrating their ability to project force, sustain operations, and challenge government forces on multiple fronts.
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