Sahel jihadist-hit area doubled since 2020, ACLED says

The area of Africa’s Sahel affected by jihadist attacks has doubled since 2020, conflict monitor ACLED says, as armed groups expand across rural areas and into borderlands near coastal west Africa.

Groups including the Islamic State group, Boko Haram and the Al-Qaeda-linked Group for the Support of Islam and Muslims, or JNIM, have killed thousands, uprooted communities and challenged governments across the region.

“The epicentre of global terrorism is in Africa,” US Africom General Dagvin Anderson said.

Heni Nsaibia, a senior ACLED analyst, said violence that was once concentrated mainly in northern Mali has spread across much of the central Sahel and increasingly into borderlands of coastal west Africa. He said the groups can operate across vast territories, carry out large attacks and challenge state control in rural areas.

Large-scale attacks have hit the capitals of Niger and Mali this year. The Islamic State group says 86 percent of its global operations in early 2026 took place in Africa, about twice as many as in 2024.

In Mali, JNIM has imposed restrictions in towns including Nioro du Sahel, where a resident said fighters control who can leave, require women to wear veils and collect taxes of about 10 percent of harvests or income.

In Burkina Faso, residents described fear of attacks and punishments. In Nigeria’s Borno state, people said Boko Haram attacks had disrupted transport, farming and fishing, with some communities paying taxes to armed groups. In southern Niger’s Tera, a resident said fear of robbery or killing had hurt local economic activity.

Some UN estimates put the number of fighters across west Africa at about 20,000, though the figure is unclear.

Jean-Herve Jezequel of the International Crisis Group said the central Sahel faces “a serious governance crisis,” with states often neglecting rural areas and failing to address conflicts over land and resources.

The instability is also spreading into northern Benin and Togo, where JNIM is recruiting and attacking the army. Ivorian Deputy Prime Minister Tene Birahima Ouattara called for renewed regional cooperation, saying terrorism cannot be defeated by one state alone.