West Africa: Islamic jihadist groups are now taking root in Christian-majority Benin

by Karen Faulkner, Worthy News Correspondent

(Worthy News) – While Islamic jihadist terrorists have long plagued West African countries like Nigeria, groups connected to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group have now spread to take root in the Christian-majority West African coastal state of Benin, the Associated Press reports.

A country of 13 million people, Benin is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north-west, and Niger to the north-east.

According to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, Islamic jihadist attacks in Benin spiked from around 30 last year to 80 this year, AP reports. The overall number of incidents involving jihadi groups rose by more than 70%. “There’s full expansion, regular preaching. They’re establishing cells, they have a lot of presence,” Kars de Bruijne, senior research fellow and head of the Sahel program at the Clingendael Institute, told AP.

For the first time, Benin saw kidnappings by jihadists this year: 33 in 2023 compared to zero kidnappings last year, AP reports. Residents have complained that the number of explosions has also increased. Moreover, thousands of people have been displaced in the wake of attacks, raising fears of a looming humanitarian crisis: the UN has estimated that tens of thousands of Benin residents could soon face food insecurity.

The Benin government is working to strengthen the country’s borders but has reportedly sought to downplay the crisis in order to protect the country’s image: “Benin has invested billions of dollars in propping up culture and tourism and is building a $1.5 billion industrial zone 27 miles (45 kilometers) outside of the city of Cotonou aimed at creating 300,000 jobs by 2030,” AP said in its report.

Confirming the government’s reluctance to publicize the situation, Bertin Assogba, local coordinator of the Durable and Develop Reference rights group, told AP: “The jihadists live with the populations, the citizens know them, but they refuse to denounce them because the government doesn’t encourage people to do so.”

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