On March 21, 2021, scores of villagers were murdered when gunmen on motorbikes raided several villages in the southwestern Republic of Niger. The incident is the bloodiest violence recorded in the country in years, according to the Nigerien government. The death toll from the attack is put at 137. Although no armed group is yet to claim responsibility for the attack, Niger has been plagued with border attacks by fighters linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL).
The Republic of Niger is also part of the Lake Chad Basin countries experiencing spillover of Boko Haram violence from Nigeria. Nigeria and Niger share borders and, inevitably, the carnage of jihadists attacks. The porous nature of the boundaries between the two countries has a damaging impact on the Sahelian crisis. In 2020, while lamenting the troubled Sahel region’s state, President Buhari held that only God could effectively supervise the borders between Nigeria and the Republic of Niger.
Beyond geographical closeness, Niger and Nigeria share other factors that have deepened internal conflicts. Nigeria ranks 161st out of 189 countries in the 2020 United Nations Human Development Index, and Niger sits at the bottom of the 2020 list. While Niger is one of the top five poorest African countries, Nigeria has the highest number of people living in poverty and often referred to as the world’s poverty capital. Both countries are currently experiencing high levels of armed groups’ violence and inter-communal wars. Indeed, according to a report, the recent attacks in Niger appear to be the consequence of armed groups enmeshing themselves in ethnic conflicts between farming and herding communities.
Like Niger, Nigeria has its fair share of communal violence and armed groups’ menace. But the more significant challenge is that both nations’ similarities, in terms of shared porous borders, human development deficits, and poverty, make it easy for armed conflict proliferation. Nigeria is currently battling internal violence vistas such that the nation’s military forces appear overwhelmed. Hence, to manage the emerging threats, conflict experts are recommending non-combative measures. The Nigerien security crisis is one porous border route away from compounding Nigeria’s woes.
Countries in the West African Sahel, especially Niger and Nigeria, must begin to tailor comprehensive and unique solutions to their multiple theatres of conflicts. As mentioned earlier, armed groups in Niger have capitalised on existing communal clashes to unleashing reprisal attacks against the civilian population. Nigeria has witnessed similar trends with attacks on rural residents, herding groups and farming communities. New tensions are also emerging in southern Nigeria, with violent schisms between communities and herding groups, militants, pro-secessionists versus the Nigerian state. These different dynamic security challenges form the trigger for widespread instability and subsequent state fragility. Therefore, new commitments are needed to specifically manage these issues as they are deepening.
On the border front, countries of the West African Sahel must step up to regulate border points, especially illegal entry routes that have provided safe passage for the smuggling of arms and armed groups’ movement. There is a need to address the easy border access non-state armed groups enjoy. There must be a multilateral commitment of West African countries to independently improve border management in their respective states. The rise of violence across the West African Sahel, for example, will better be managed if conflict-impacted nations upscale border control measures through investments in border protection technology. Committed states with effective border strategies can share intelligence that will aid the security of other states.
On a broader spectrum, the Sahel violence is spreading far-reaching effects in the region. Thus, it is vital to strengthen the activities of the Multinational Joint Task Force (MNJTF). With the international community’s support, Sahelian states must coordinate military responses to insecurity in the region. The assortment of different military units in the area has not summarily ended attacks. Relatively peaceful countries within the Sahel may also risk their stability soon. Affected nations are better off combining resources to tackle the issue comprehensively. The multiple yet uncoordinated Sahel interventions must be aligned to achieve a common purpose – stabilising the region. The nearly similar damaging indices in some West African Sahel countries and shared porous borders presents a seamless proliferation of armed groups’ violence if new and committed measures are not undertaken.
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March 26, 2021 at 04:25PM
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Connected by Conflict - Niger - ReliefWeb
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