How Ansar al Islam Gains Popular Support in Burkina Faso

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Critical Threats

Emily Estelle

May 9 2019

 

  The movement that includes al Qaeda and the Islamic State is spreading across West Africa. Salafi-jihadi groups in this region aim to establish governance in line with their extremist interpretation of Islam and to advance the ultimate triumph of the global Salafi-jihadi movement.[1] They are taking advantage of failures of governance, social breakdown, and local grievances to establish relationships with local populations—an approach that has been highly successful for their comrades in Syria, Yemen, Somalia, and elsewhere. Communities under pressure accept and sometimes support the Salafi-jihadi presence as a means of survival even when they do not accept the groups’ ideology.[2] The Salafi-jihadi groups’ under-the-radar approach masks the breadth and depth of their penetration and obscures the long-term threat they pose to the region and to the U.S. and its partners. Ansar al Islam’s activities in Burkina Faso demonstrate this phenomenon and show how permitting instability and conflict to fester for years—as in Mali—allows Salafi-jihadi groups to spread beyond the immediate conflict zone to infect neighboring states.

Ansar al Islam is a Salafi-jihadi group based in northern Burkina Faso with ties to al Qaeda and Islamic State groups in the Sahel. A popular Burkinabe preacher from the northern Soum Province, Malam Ibrahim Dicko, fought with al Qaeda–linked groups in Mali in 2012 or 2013 as many others did.[3] He returned to Burkina Faso in 2016 and transformed a charitable organization he had been running into an armed group.[4] He lost many followers by militarizing but retained a core cadre. Dicko launched an insurgency in December 2016 in response to security forces’ operations in his hometown.[5] His group has since taken de facto control of parts of northern Burkina Faso. Dicko’s participation in the Mali conflict radicalized him and developed his fighting and organizational skills, which he used to operate a Salafi-jihadi fighting force in his home country. His brother succeeded him after his death. Malam Dicko’s story is but one of many playing out across the Muslim world as fighters return home from conflicts in Mali, Syria, Iraq, and elsewhere.

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French military frees hostages in Burkina Faso, two commandos killed

Richard Lough, Sophie Louet

May 10 2019

PARIS (Reuters) - French commandos rescued four foreign hostages including two French citizens from a militant group in Burkina Faso, France’s military said on Friday, adding that two of the elite soldiers were killed in the night-time operation.

French special forces carried out the raid under cover of dark over the night of Thursday-Friday, supported by U.S. intelligence and troops from France’s Barkhane operation deployed in the Sahel region to counter Islamist militants.

All four hostages were safe, President Emmanuel Macron’s office said, adding that a U.S. woman and a South Korean woman were also freed in the covert operation.

“The precise and determined actions of French soldiers allowed us to take out the kidnappers while protecting the lives of the hostages,” France’s army chief Francois Lecointre told a news conference, describing the militant group as “terrorists”.

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Priest, 5 churchgoers killed in Burkina Faso shooting

Zachary Halaschak

May 12, 2019

A group of gunmen in Burkina Faso attacked a Catholic church and killed six people, including the priest.

Around 9 a.m. Sunday about 20 to 30 gunmen entered the church in the town of Dablo and began shooting at the congregation as it tried to escape. The group then burned the church to the ground.

“There is an atmosphere of panic in the town. People are holed up in their homes, nothing is going on. The shops and stores are closed. It's practically a ghost town,” the mayor of Dablo told AFP.

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