After officially pledging allegiance to the Al-Qaeda In The Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) group, the terrorist group Ansaru intends to establish itself in the border area between Benin, Niger and Nigeria. This is a project that the members of this group intend to carry out in this new year 2022.
The border area between Benin, Niger and Nigeria could soon be stormed by terrorists from the new group affiliated with AQIM. Specialist Wassim Nasr fears a rise in terrorist activities in this area, which according to him could suffer the same fate as the border area between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.
The area of the three borders between Nigeria, Niger and Benin could become the equivalent of what we see on the border between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso.
The Ansaru group expresses its ambitions in a press release dated December 31, 2021. A press release that comes a few weeks after the first jihadist attacks recorded in northern Benin. All of this, according to Wassim, would not be accidental.
Note that this is not the first time that this terrorist group has announced its desire to settle in this area. According to some sources, there had already been several press releases in this direction, but this time they seemed very serious.
The targeted border area may be difficult to capture even if analysts believe that the border area between Benin, Niger and Nigeria could very soon become what we observe in the border area between Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso; it must be said that it will not be easy. These two areas do not benefit from the same level of security.
In the Benin – Niger – Nigeria border area, security is strongly reinforced with the deployment of Nigerian troops as part of Operation Hadin Kan. The Ansaru group will therefore have these troops on their way, prepared to form a barrier to all attacks.
The presence of jihadists in the border areas of Benin was reported by researcher Kars de Bruijne of the Institute of International Relations in Clingendael, the Netherlands. By analyzing the security risks in the northern regions, he indicated that there are “at least five jihadist cells operating in northern Benin”.