Tracking the Violent Extremism Spillover from the Sahel to Littoral West Africa

Tracking the Violent Extremism Spillover from the Sahel to Littoral West Africa

A recent analytical report by Aneliese Bernard, summarized in an article for the Irregular Warfare Initiative at the Modern War Institute at West Point, details the expansion of violent extremism from West Africa's Sahel region into the Littoral states on the Gulf of Guinea. For a full copy of the report, please contact aneliese@elva.org.

The report offers a comprehensive analysis of the situation in the border communities of this region, focused on Littoral states that are experiencing nascent violent extremist influence and operation campaigns. In addition to in-depth analysis, the report offers a variety of recommendations on how to combat this growing insurgency from the defense, diplomacy and development lens. The report draws from hundreds of expert interviews and three rounds of mixed-method data collection that took place over 12 months, in over 300 border communities in Burkina Faso, Niger, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Togo and Benin.

Source: Aneliese Bernard, “Jihadism is Spreading to the Gulf of Guinea Littoral States, and a New Approach to Countering it is Needed.” Modern War Institute. 9 September 2021.