Al-Qaeda terror network in Sahel claims first attack in Nigeria

Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam wal-Muslimin (JNIM), an al-Qaeda affiliate operating in the Sahelian states of Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, has claimed its first attack in Nigeria.

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The attack, according to local sources and jihadi experts, targeted a security position in Nuku, a Kwara State village bordering Benin.

Armed terrorists believed to be members of JNIM claimed the attack in a video now circulating on social media.

Philip Brant, a jihadi expert with special focus on the Sahel, noted that JNIM’s propaganda medium, az-Zallaqah, has not confirmed the attack. However, he said the person in the video explicitly claimed the attack was from JNIM.

In June, PREMIUM TIMES reported that JNIM claimed an attack on Basso, a Beninese town about 15 kilometres from Babana and other communities around Kainji National Park straddling Kwara and Niger states.

About a month later, members of the group wielding sophisticated weapons released a video, confirming their presence in Nigeria.

In another report, this journalist chronicled how al-Qaeda, using its local affiliates—JNIM and Ansaru—infiltrated Nigerian border communities through Kainji National Park and W Park, encompassing Benin, Burkina Faso and Niger.

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The attack

Local sources told PREMIUM TIMES that the terrorists came through the Kainji park and ambushed the military position in the village, killing one soldier and kidnapping another.

“The attack happened on 28 October around 10:15 pm,” a source near the village told our reporter by phone.

Another local source confirmed the attack, explaining that the terrorists also looted two motorcycles from the soldiers.

Locals attributed the attack to Ansaru-aligned terrorists, locally known as “Mamuda boys.” The group’s leaders were recently arrested by the Nigerian government, and are being charged for terrorism-related offences.

“JNIM just claimed its first attack in Nigeria (on 28 October), #Kwara state, one soldier killed,” Menastream, a security research think-tank in the Sahel and North Africa, posted on X, adding that one “AK rifle, six cell phones, ammunition, a motorcycle, assorted military gear and a sum of cash in Naira” were seized in the operation.

The Nigerian military has not issued a statement about the attack. Media enquiries sent to the defence spokesperson, Tukur Gusau, and his army counterpart, Appolonia Anele, had not been responded to at the time of this report.

JNIM in Nigeria

For a long time, experts have debated the presence of JNIM in Nigeria. Some argued that the group is taking cover in Kainji National Park, where Ansaru terrorists operate.

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Local sources told this newspaper that both groups have trade and operational collaboration, citing mass cross-border movements. Around 2021, some jihadists believed to be members of JNIM crossed into Kainji National Park in what is believed to be an attempt to link up with the Ansaru terrorists who at the time were around Birnin Gwari in Kaduna State.

Noting the collaboration between JNIM and Ansaru, Mr Brant, the jihadi expert, once warned that JNIM’s attack on Nigeria “is only a matter of time.”

The JNIM was formed in March 2017 when four Mali-based extremist group, Ansar al-Din, al-Murabitun, the Macina Liberation Front (MLF) and the Sahara Emirate subgroup of al-Qa’ida in the Lands of the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), merged forces.

JNIM is one of the violent jihadi groups in the Sahel, mostly targeting security formations and crippling local economies, especially in Mali where the group’s fighters have disrupted transportation of petroleum products, resulting in scarcity in the Junta-led country.