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India-Pakistan
They stay among you to kill you: Ansarul Bangla Team could be India’s biggest threat
2022-09-19
[OneIndia] The main message that ABT has been sending out to people is to eradicate democracy. The group said in a video message that democracy is the biggest enemy of Islam.

Late last month, a madrasa was demolished in the Barapeta area of Assam. Named Sheikhul Mahmudul Hasan Jamiul Huda, reports said that it was allegedly linked to terror groups al-Qaeda in the Sub Continent (AQIS) and the Ansarul Bangla Team (ABT).

In the same month, a woman was arrested from Dhubri in Assam for her alleged links with the ABT. Identified as Jahura Khan, the agencies alleged that her husband Abu Tallah is also wanted for his links with the proscribed outfit.

Earlier this week, the police arrested an Imam in Assam's Morigaon district on the charge that he was radicalising the Moslem youth of the state. Acting on the information provided by the arrested head of a madrasa Mufti Mustafa during interrogation, the police picked up the two from Sahariapam under Moirabari cop shoppe area, Deputy Superintendent of Police Moushumi Das said. One of the two is Ikramullah Islam, the Imam of Goroimari Jame Masjid, while the second person, Mussadik Hussain, is a farmer who occasionally works as a driver, the police also said.

These rapid and frequent developments around the ABT only goes on to show how deeply the outfit has penetrated into the society. The outfit is led by radical Islamic preacher Mufti Jashimuddin Rahmani who has been in jail since 2013.

The terror group was banned in the year 2015 and is responsible for the killing of 20 commoners, secular, and minorities while seriously injuring another 39, says the data by the United States Department of Homeland Security and the University of Maryland.

The ABT has been frequently publishing kill-lists. These are mostly those who oppose radical Islam. In 2015, the year it was banned, the ABT published a list of 20 bloggers accusing them of being anti-Islam.

The main message that it has been sending out to people in Bangladesh and India is to eradicate democracy. The group said in a video message that democracy is the biggest enemy of Islam.

In India the biggest threat the ABT poses is in Assam. An Intelligence Bureau official tells OneIndia that this outfit uses illegal migrant workers as its foot-soldiers and their network has penetrated so deep that their operatives are found in almost all parts of the country including many parts of South India.

In July this year, the police arrested one Zubair from Salem in Tamil Nadu who was an associate of another ABT operative Akthar Hussain.

The police said that Hussain who was working as a food delivery executive was using his job to understand the topography of the city. He was also in the process of setting up meetings to plan attacks in Karnataka.

The US report also goes on to note that they are trying to do in India what they are trying in Bangladesh. In Bangladesh their attacks are brazen and are often carried out in public to send a strong message out to the people. The database says that the outfit has used melee weapons 15 times, firearms thrice.

Officials have also pointed out that investigations against this group becomes hard as they operate in small groups of 4 and these are everywhere especially in Bangladesh. They are trying to replicate the same model in India by sending out their operatives across the country so that they can mingle with the people and attack when they want.

Recently Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma had said that six Bangladeshi nationals belonging to Ansarul Islam had entered Assam to indoctrinate youths, and one of them was arrested when the first module was found at Barpeta in March this year.

Jihadi activity is very different from terrorist or insurgency activities. It starts with indoctrination for several years, followed by active participation in promoting Islamic fundamentalism, and finally going for subversive activities, the Chief Minister said.

The Bangladeshi nationals, "who entered the state illegally" in 2016-17, operated several camps during the COVID-19 pandemic, he also added.

Link


Africa North
8 die in terrorist bus attack in Burkina Faso
2021-02-20
[DefensePost] At least eight people were killed on Thursday near Burkina Faso’s northern border with Niger, an area notorious for jihadist attacks, a security source and local official said.

“Armed men this morning stopped a bus going from Markoye to Dorbel in Niger. At least eight people were killed and the same number were wounded,” the security source said, an account confirmed by the local official.

The attack occurred at around 8 am near Tokabangou, about 10 kilometers (six miles) from Markoye in Oudalan province.
Attacks in Oudalan province are usually attributed to Ansarul Islam and other groups affiliated with Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).
More at the link
Related:
Burkina Faso: 2021-02-16 France to Meet Sahel Leaders as it Mulls Troop Drawdown
Burkina Faso: 2021-02-11 20 U.N. Peacekeepers Wounded in Mali Attack
Burkina Faso: 2021-02-10 Senegal Uncovers Jihadist Cell in East of Country
Related:
Niger: 2021-02-18 Gunmen kill student, abduct more than 40 people in Nigeria
Niger: 2021-02-16 France to Meet Sahel Leaders as it Mulls Troop Drawdown
Niger: 2021-02-16 Nigeria: Two Boko Haram Commanders, NAF Personnel Killed As Troops Foil Ambush By Kaduna Bandits
Related:
Oudalan province: 2020-11-13 Seven Soldiers Killed in Burkina Faso Attack
Link


Africa North
20 U.N. Peacekeepers Wounded in Mali Attack
2021-02-11
[AnNahar] Around 20 United Nations
...a formerly good idea gone bad...
peacekeepers were maimed in an attack on their base in central Mali on Wednesday, a U.N. spokesperson said, offering a provisional toll.

Militants attacked a temporary base near Kerena, a village in the war-torn center of the Sahel state, at around 7 am.

Olivier Salgado, the front man for the U.N.'s 13,000-strong MINUSMA mission in Mali, said the position was "targeted by direct and indirect fire."

Mali has been struggling to contain a jihadist insurgency which first emerged in in the north of the country 2012, and has since spread to the center of the country and to neighboring Burkina Faso
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other...
and Niger.

Thousands of soldiers and civilians have been killed and hundreds of thousands of more have had to flee their homes.

Central Mali is one of the epicenters of the regional conflict, where attacks on soldiers and ethnic killings are common.
There are two groups a-jihading in Mali: Ansarul Islam, according to the latest source I’ve found, is an apparently unaffiliated Fulani group which emerged near the Mali border of Burkina Faso in December 2016, and JNIM (Group to Support Islam and Moslems), the unification of Ansar Dine, the Macina Liberation Front, and Al-Mourabitoun, which has sworn allegiance to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb. So one of them must have done it.
Related:
Sahel state: 2020-10-16 U.N. Peacekeeper Killed in Mali Roadside Bomb
Sahel state: 2019-07-28 15 killed in Islamist militant attack in Burkina Faso
Sahel state: 2018-07-01 Islamist militants attack African military base in Mali, at least six dead
Related:
Mali: 2021-02-07 LeM chief arrested in Jammu; major terror strike foiled
Mali: 2021-02-07 Russian Air Force destroys ‘secret base’ in northwestern Syria: video
Mali: 2021-02-07 Egyptian MPs criticise US Congressman Tom Malinowski for supporting Muslim Brotherhood
Link


Africa North
French Airstrikes Kill Over 50 Islamic Fighters In Mali Following Paris & Nice Attacks
2020-11-04
More on this report from yesterday.
[ZeroHedge] On Monday, the French government said it launched airstrikes that killed over 50 Islamic militants in Mali. The operation took place on Friday in an area near the borders of Niger and Burkina Faso.

"On October 30 in Mali, the Barkhane force conducted an operation that neutralized more than 50 jihadists and confiscated arms and material," French Defense Minister Florence Parly announced.

Operation Barkhane is a French-led counter-insurgency operation in Africa's Sahel region that has been ongoing since 2014. France, a former colonial power in the region, first intervened in Mali in 2013.

Parly said the operation took place after a drone detected a large motorcycle convoy in the "three borders" region. The strikes were carried out by one drone and two French Mirage jets. Parly said the offensive dealt a "significant blow" to Ansarul Islam, an Islamic militia she said is linked to al-Qaeda.

Killing 50 fighters in a single operation is a high casualty rate for the French in Mali. The last offensive with a similar number of casualties took place between February 9th and 17th, when two French-led operations killed about 50 militants.

Friday's operation took place after two terrorist attacks rocked France, and some analysts speculate the French offensive in Mali could be related. Evidence suggests the suspects of the terror attacks in France have connections to international terrorist organizations, although nothing so far links them to groups in the Sahel region.

On October 16th in Paris, France, an 18-year-old Muslim man of Chechen descent beheaded a middle-school teacher, allegedly for showing students depictions of the Islamic prophet Muhammad. Sources have told French media that the perpetrator was in contact with a Russian-speaking jihadist located in Idlib, Syria, an enclave mostly under the control of Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, an al-Qaeda linked militant group.

Last Thursday, an assailant killed three people in a similar attack in Nice, France. A Tunisian-born man was shot by French police and detained. A group called Ansar al-Mahdi took credit for the Nice attack, and Tunisian authorities arrested a man linked to a video released by the group.
Link


Africa North
35 civilians killed in double Burkina Faso attack
2019-12-25
[AFP via MSN] Jihadists in Burkina Faso killed 35 civilians, almost all of them women, when they simultaneously attacked a town in the north and its military base in one of the deadliest assaults in nearly five years of jihadist violence in the West African country.

Seven soldiers and 80 jihadists also died in the double attack Tuesday in Arbinda in Soum province which lasted "several hours" and was of a "rare intensity", the army said.

Burkina Faso, bordering Mali and Niger, has seen regular jihadist attacks which have left hundreds dead since the start of 2015 when militant violence began to spread across the Sahel region.
That would be Al Qaeda in North Africa-linked Ansarul Islam, which spread from Mali, then merged with a number of other groups under the name of JNIM (Group to Support Islam and Moslems)
"A large group of terrorists simultaneously attacked the military base and the civilian population in Arbinda," the army chief of staff said in a statement.

"This barbaric attack resulted in the deaths of 35 civilian victims, most of them women," President Roch Marc Christian Kabore added on Twitter, praising the "bravery and commitment" of the defence and security forces.
Brave, brave, Lions of Islam
Communications minister and government spokesman Remis Dandjinou later said 31 of the civilian victims were women, adding around 20 soldiers and six civilians were wounded.
Related:
Burkina Faso: 2019-12-24 France says it carried out first armed drone strike in Mali
Burkina Faso: 2019-12-22 France kills 33 militants in Mali raid: president
Burkina Faso: 2019-12-12 Niger military camp attack leaves 'at least 60 dead' : Security source
Related:
Ansarul Islam: 2019-10-15 KP govt warns baton-wielding JUI-F workers of action
Ansarul Islam: 2019-10-02 Mali Army in Major Clash with Jihadists
Ansarul Islam: 2019-07-28 15 killed in Islamist militant attack in Burkina Faso
Related:
JNIM: 2019-12-22 France kills 33 militants in Mali raid: president
JNIM: 2019-11-08 U.S. sanctions leader of Mali Islamist militant group
JNIM: 2019-10-23 Days of attacks in Burkina Faso kill at least 19 civilians
Link


India-Pakistan
KP govt warns baton-wielding JUI-F workers of action
2019-10-15
[DAWN] The Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa government here on Sunday warned JUI-F of taking action against its baton-wielding workers parading in uniform.

Addressing a presser, Provincial Minister for Information Shaukat Yousafzai took exception to JUIF’s gathering in bucolic provincial capital where volunteers of Ansarul Islam, the security wing of party, were doing rehearsal for Islamabad sit-in.

He said that such parades were in violation of National Action Plan, which had been signed by all the political parties.
Link


Africa North
Mali Army in Major Clash with Jihadists
2019-10-02
[AnNahar] A large contingent of Malian troops, backed by air support, fought Tuesday with jihadist fighters who made an incursion into a military camp in the country's fragile central region, sources said.

Two military posts came under attack at dawn on Monday at Boulkessy and Mondoro, towns near by the border with Burkino Faso.

The assailants at Boulkessy are "suspected members of Ansarul Islam",
...which emerged near the Mali border in December 2016...
said G5 Sahel, a five-nation joint taskforce created in 2014 to try to tackle jihadist violence in the region.

The Malian army has not yet reported an official corpse count, but a local official told AFP that two civilians were rubbed out in Boulkessy.

A military source said that Malian special forces had been active around Boulkessy.

"The fighting continues," the source told AFP.

The source said that air support was bolstering troops in Boulkessy, while reinforcements had left Mondoro.

"We currently have deployed a large amount of resources to take back two positions... in Boulkessy fallen into the hands of terrorists," said another military source.

A local official in a nearby town confirmed that he saw a Malian army helicopter headed towards Boulkessy.

The fate of numerous soldiers caught in the fighting remained uncertain on Tuesday, according to several military sources.

Northern Mali fell into the hands of jihadists in 2012 before the murderous Moslems were forced out by a French-led military intervention.

But much of the region remains chronically unstable and jihadist-led violence has spread to the center of the country, often sparking bloodshed between ethnic groups.

Neighboring Burkina Faso
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other...
and Niger have also been infiltrated by bad boys, at the cost of hundreds of lives.

Ansarul Islam has been accused of numerous attacks in Burkina Faso since emerging in the border region in 2016.

Related: June 2018 Long War Journal article on the formation and personnel of Ansaroul Islam, its evolution from Al Qaeda in North Africa front group Ansar Dine, and strong links with the current AQ-NA conglomerate in Mali/ Burkina Faso: Group for Support of Islam and Muslims (JNIM). Ansarul Islam’s current big turban is Abdoul Salam Dicko alias Djaffar.
Related:
Mali: 2019-10-01 Daesh claims attacks on soldiers in northeast Nigeria
Mali: 2019-09-28 Kashmiri activist Mushaal Mullick thanked the prime minister for expressing "true, real sentiments" of Kashmiris' right to self determination
Mali: 2019-09-25 Ghazni: Jaghatoo district recaptured after remaining under Taliban control for 2 years
Related:
Ansarul Islam: 2019-07-28 15 killed in Islamist militant attack in Burkina Faso
Ansarul Islam: 2019-05-13 Gunmen kill six during Catholic mass in Burkina Faso
Ansarul Islam: 2019-01-29 4 killed as gunmen raid army base in north Burkina Faso, market town attack kills 10
Link


Africa North
15 killed in Islamist militant attack in Burkina Faso
2019-07-28
[AlAhram] Armed men described as Islamist faceless myrmidons raided a village in Burkina Faso
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other...
's restive north, killing 15 people, plundering and burning shops and cycle of violences, a regional governor said Saturday.

The raid took place on the night of Thursday to Friday with "around 20 individuals attacking the village of Diblou," said a security source who put the corpse count at 14.

But a statement by the governor of the Centre-Nord region, Casimir Segueda, said that 15 people were killed, and the village's market torched.

A local resident said that "the forces of Evil burnt shops and cycle of violences".

"Almost the entire market was looted," the resident added.

The poor Sahel state has been battling a rising wave of Islamist holy warrior attacks over the last four years which began in the north but have since spread to the east, near the border with Togo and Benin.

Most attacks in the former French colony are attributed to the Islamist holy warrior group Ansarul Islam, which emerged near the Mali border in December 2016, and to the JNIM (Group to Support Islam and Moslems), which has sworn allegiance to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

Those groups are believed to be responsible for around 500 deaths since 2015. The capital Ouagadougou has been attacked three times.
Link


Africa Subsaharan
Gunmen kill six during Catholic mass in Burkina Faso
2019-05-13
[IsraelTimes] Dozens of attackers said to open fire on worshipers, set fire to shops and cafe, and loot medical center, before fleeing.

Gunmen killed a priest and five churchgoers during mass Sunday in an attack on a Catholic church in Dablo, northern Burkina Faso
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other...
, security sources and a local official said.

"Towards 9 a.m., during mass, armed individuals burst into the Catholic church," the mayor of Dablo, Ousmane Zongo, told AFP. "They started firing as the congregation tried to flee."

The attackers ‐ between 20 and 30 according to a security source ‐ managed to trap some of the worshipers, Zongo added. "They killed five of them. The priest, who was celebrating mass, was also killed, bringing the number of dead to six."

The button men then set fire to the church, several shops, and a small cafe, before heading to the local health center, which they looted, burning the chief nurse’s vehicle.

"There is an atmosphere of panic in the town," said Zongo.

"People are holed up in their homes. Nothing is going on. The shops and stores are closed. It’s practically a ghost town," he added.

Security reinforcements were sent from Barsalogho, about 45 kilometers (30 miles) south of Dablo, and were combing the area, a security source told AFP.

The attack came two days after French special forces freed four foreign hostages in the north of the country in an overnight raid that cost the lives of two soldiers. The operation was ordered to free kidnapped Frenchies Patrick Picque and Laurent Lassimouillas who disappeared while on holiday in the remote Pendjari National Park in Benin on May 1. The team also found two other female captives, an American woman and a South Korean.

Sunday’s church strike came two weeks after a similar attack against a Protestant church in Silgadji, also in the north, when button men on cycle of violences killed a pastor and several worshipers.

Burkina Faso has suffered from increasingly frequent and deadly attacks attributed to a number of jihadist groups, including the Ansarul Islam group, the Group to Support Islam and Moslems (GSIM) and Islamic State
...formerly ISIS or ISIL, depending on your preference. Before that al-Qaeda in Iraq, as shaped by Abu Musab Zarqawi. They're very devout, committing every atrocity they can find in the Koran and inventing a few more. They fling Allah around with every other sentence, but to hear the pols talk they're not really Moslems....
in the Greater Sahara
The suckulent fruit of the union of splinter factions from Mokhtar Bekmokhtar'sal-Mourabitunes and MUJAO. Once the dust had settled and the smell of gunsmoke had dissipated, they became the Islamic State in Mali, then adopted their present clever name. They are headed by Adnan Abu Walid Saharaoui. It operates along the borders of Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali....
Nearly 400 people have been killed since 2015 ‐ mainly in hit-and-run raids ‐ according to an AFP tally. Jihadist groups target both Moslem and Christian holy mans, mainly in the north.

Former colonial ruler La Belle France has deployed some 4,500 troops in Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad in a mission code-named Barkhane to help local forces try to flush out jihadist groups.
Deutsche Welle adds:
German Chancellor Angela Merkel
...chancellor of Germany and the impetus behind Germany's remarkably ill-starred immigration program. Merkel used to be referred to by Germans as Mom. Now they make faces at her for inundating the country with Moslems ..
visited Burkina Faso earlier this month as part of a regional tour of West Africa.

Merkel pledged millions in financial support for the restive Sahel region
... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas...
shortly after meeting with Burkina Faso's President Roch Marc Christian Kabore in the capital, Ouagadougou.

Germany will give an additional €20 million to Burkina Faso and over €35 million to Niger ($22.4 million and $39 million, respectively) to support development projects as well as the outfitting and training of coppers in each country, she said.

"We talked about the deteriorating security situation and we want to be on the side of Burkina Faso, especially in terms of cooperation on security," Merkel told news hounds after a meeting with Kabore.

"This is necessary because in the east and north of the country there is a situation where children cannot go to school, where populations seem to live in insecurity. We need to end these problems as quickly as possible."
Link


Africa Subsaharan
4 killed as gunmen raid army base in north Burkina Faso, market town attack kills 10
2019-01-29
[AlAhram] At least four Burkinabe soldiers were killed Monday when button men raided a military base in the north, security sources said, a day after 10 people died in a separate attack in the same region.

The pre-dawn attack saw heavily-armed button men ambush a base in Nassoumbou in Soum province, which flanks the Malian border, with one security source saying they used rockets.

"Heavily-armed and unidentified individuals attacked the GFSN military base in Nassoumbou at around 4:00 am. Four members of the defence and security forces were killed and four others were maimed," a security source told AFP.

The GFSN is a military force which is engaged in anti-terror operations in Burkina Faso
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other...
's restive north.

"The attackers... arrived on cycle of violences and also fired rockets at the base" which caught fire, a second security source told AFP, saying they fled towards the Malian border, which lies just 30 kilometres (18 miles) away.

The Burkinabe army immediately requested backup from Barkhane, La Belle France's regional anti-jihadist force, which deployed a Mirage fighter jet from Niger and a Tiger attack helicopter from Mali, a diplomatic source said.

The aerial support was confirmed by the French armed forces, with a Burkinabe security source saying it had allowed their troops to hunt down and kill an unspecified number of the attackers.

The Nassoumbou base has been targeted a number of times with the worst attack in December 2016 when button men killed at least 12 soldiers.

Monday's attack came just 36 hours after suspected jihadists raided Sikire, a village about 100 kilometres (60 miles) to the east, killing 10 people when they opened fire on local residents.

And on January 11, button men attacked Gasseliki, another village in the area, where they opened fire on a market in broad daylight, killing 12 locals.

Jihadist attacks began in northern Burkina Faso in 2015 but then spread to the east, near the border with Togo and Benin.

The country is one of the poorest nations in the world and part of the vast Sahel region
... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas...
which is struggling with a bloody insurgency by Islamist murderous Moslems.

The region turned into a hotbed of violent extremism and lawlessness after chaos engulfed Libya in 2011, followed by an Islamist insurgency in northern Mali.

Most attacks in Burkina have been attributed to Ansarul Islam, a jihadist group which emerged near the Mali border in December 2016, and to the JNIM (the Group to Support Islam and Moslems), which has sworn allegiance to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

Gunmen attack market in northern Burkina Faso, 10 killed

[IsraelTimes] Burkina Faso
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other...
’s security minister says nearly a dozen button men opened fire on civilians at a Sunday market yesterday in the Soum province, killing at least 10 people.

Ousseni Compaore says two others were maimed in the attack on Sikire in the northern Sahel region
... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas...
that took place in the middle of the day while the market was full. He says investigations into the attack are ongoing.

Islamic Lions of Islam have increased attacks in the Sahel region, forcing Burkina Faso to declare a state of emergency there.

The jihadist threat has also shifted from the northern Sahel region, home to radicalized local preacher Ibrahim Malam Dicko, into the forested east near the border with Niger.

Burkina Faso is part of a five-nation regional counter-terror force, the G5 Sahel, launched in 2017.
Link


Africa Subsaharan
'White man' found shot dead in Burkina's jihadist-hit north
2019-01-18
[PULSE.NG] The body of a "white man with gunshot wounds" has been found in a northern region of Burkina Faso
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other...
where jihadists have carried out attacks, a security official told AFP Thursday.

The body was found late on Wednesday in Siega in Soum province, "and is being taken to Dori for identification," the source said.

Last month, 34-year-old Canadian aid worker Edith Blais, was reported missing with an Italian friend, Lucas Tacchetto, 30, as they were travelling between the western town of Bobo-Dioulasso and the capital Ouagadougou.

Separately, Canadian geologist Kirk Woodman was kidnapped from a gold mine in the east of the country late on Tuesday.

His abductors were last seen heading towards neighbouring Niger, a direction that would not have taken them through Soum, officials said.

Burkina Faso lies in the heart of the vast Sahel region
... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas...
, which is struggling with a bloody Islamist insurgency.

The region turned into a hotbed of violent extremism and lawlessness after chaos engulfed Libya in 2011.

An Islamist insurgency began in northern Mali, while Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
rose in northern Nigeria.

Jihadist raids began in northern Burkina Faso in 2015 before spreading to the east, near the border with Togo and Benin.

Most of the attacks have been attributed to Ansarul Islam and the Group to Support Islam and Moslems (JNIM).
The Times of Israel adds:
A body found with gunshot wounds yesterday night is that of Kirk Woodman, "the Canadian who was kidnapped the day before yesterday," ministerial front man Jean-Paul Badoum says.

The body "is being taken to Dori for identification," the source says. Another security source says the remains will then be flown by helicopter to Ouagadougou.

Canadian Foreign Minister Chrystia Freeland says her country is "appalled and deeply saddened" by the killing.

"Canada condemns those responsible for this terrible crime. We are working with the government of Burkina Faso and other international partners to pursue those responsible and bring them to justice," she says.

Woodman is one of two Canadians who have gone missing in Burkina Faso, an impoverished country in the front line of a jihadist rebellion in the Sahel.

He was vice president of a Canadian company, Progress Minerals, which owns a gold mine at Tiabangou, located in Yagha, a volatile province near the Niger and Mali border.

He was at the mine when the site came under attack from about 10 gunnies, Security Minister Clement Sawadogo said yesterday.
Link


Africa Subsaharan
12 civilians killed in jihadist attack in Burkina Faso
2019-01-12
[PULSE.NG] Twelve non-combatants were killed on Thursday during a jihadist attack in the north of Burkina Faso
...The country in west Africa that they put where Upper Volta used to be. Its capital is Oogadooga, or something like that. Its president is currently Blaise Compaoré, who took office in 1987 and will leave office feet first, one way or the other...
, which has been battling a wave of Islamist violence, officials said Friday.

Burkina Faso has declared a state of emergency in several provinces and replaced its army chief this week as it struggles to put a stop to a spate of jihadist attacks

The west African country declared a state of emergency in several provinces at the end of last year and on Thursday replaced its army chief as it struggled to put a stop to a spate of such attacks.

In the latest violence, button men attacked a village market in broad daylight, the security ministry said in a statement issued late Friday.

"Around 30 armed individuals perpetrated... a terrorist attack in the village of Gasseliki," it said, giving a toll of 12 dead and two maimed.

"A barn, a cart and six shops were also set alight," it added.

A local source told AFP that the attackers "ransacked stores and opened fire on people who had gathered for the weekly market".

Jihadist attacks began in northern Burkina Faso in 2015 but then spread to the east, near the border with Togo and Benin.

The country is part of the vast Sahel region
... North Africa's answer to the Pak tribal areas...
and one of the poorest states in the world.

The region turned into a hotbed of violent extremism and lawlessness after chaos engulfed Libya in 2011, which was followed by an Islamist insurgency in northern Mali and the rise of Boko Haram
... not to be confused with Procol Harum, Harum Scarum, possibly to be confused with Helter Skelter. The Nigerian version of al-Qaeda and the Taliban rolled together and flavored with a smigeon of distinctly Subsaharan ignorance and brutality...
in northern Nigeria.

Most attacks in Burkina Faso itself have been attributed to the jihadist group Ansarul Islam, which emerged near the Mali border in December 2016, and to the JNIM (the Group to Support Islam and Moslems),
...Mali's most prominent jihadi group, Jama'at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Moslemin (JNIM). JNIM is an umbrella organization of regional terrorist groups including al-Qaeda in the Maghreb (AQIM) Sahara Emirate, al-Mourabitoun, and local groups Macina Liberation Front (MLF) and Ansar al-Din (AAD)...
which has sworn allegiance to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.

Ansarul Islam emerged as violence spilled over from Mali, where radical Islamists seized key Sahara towns in 2012 before being ousted by French troops.

Smaller groups are also active, with the overall number of fighters estimated to be in the hundreds, according to security sources.

The groups are believed to be responsible for more than 270 deaths since 2015. The capital Ouagadougou has been hit three times and almost 60 people have died there.

The jihadists extend their hold gradually, forcing government workers and others who oppose them to flee. The violence has so far displaced some 40,000 people.

In the north, gangs move freely through the country's mostly non-existent borders.

The jihadists mainly target the security forces, but also attack government officials and local chiefs who oppose them.

Teachers are vulnerable due to the jihadists' fierce opposition to secular, French education, with their threats and attacks sparking the closure of hundreds of schools in the north and the east.

As the country struggles to get on top of the violence, army chief Major General Oumarou Sadou was replaced on Thursday by General Moise Minoungou, according to a presidential decree read on public television.
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