NIAMEY, Niger — The coup in Niger may enhance the power of Islamic extremists to recruit within the nation, doubtlessly growing violence and additional threatening the soundness of Africa’s Sahel area, a former jihadi fighter stated in an interview with The Associated Press.
Niger’s coup leaders who ousted the nation’s president final week have joined counterparts in neighboring Mali and Burkina Faso in arguing {that a} army authorities can higher safe the nation from violence by Islamic militants.
However, Boubacar Moussa, who stated he’s a former member of the al-Qaida-linked JNIM group and has operated in Mali, stated the coup may make it tougher to enhance the deteriorating safety state of affairs in Niger.
Moussa stated the coup that ousted Niger’s democratically elected President Mohamed Bazoum shall be welcomed by jihadis as a result of “it’s an occasion to convince others to join their group.”
“Jihadis are very supportive of this coup that happened in Niger,” he stated.
Moussa, 47, stated he was kidnapped by extremists from a village in Niger in 2019 and brought to Mali and compelled to work with them. He was with JNIM in Mali when it skilled the primary of its two current coups in 2020, and he stated jihadis noticed that overthrow of the Malian authorities as a possibility.
Moussa is now a part of a nationwide program in Niger that encourages jihadi fighters to defect and reintegrate into society. The program was put in place underneath Bazoum when he was inside minister to stem the violence that has for years plagued components of Niger and the broader Sahel area, an expansive space south of the Sahara Desert.
The AP can not confirm that Moussa fought for JNIM, or that he was kidnapped by them. However, he was taken in by this system and accepted as a former jihadist and is touted for instance of its early success.
The program’s future is unsure underneath the brand new junta.
On Sunday, the West African regional bloc introduced journey and financial sanctions towards Niger and threatened to make use of army drive if Bazoum isn’t reinstated inside every week. The army juntas of Mali, Burkina Faso and Guinea all denounced these sanctions.
In a joint assertion, Burkina Faso and Mali vowed to defend Niger and stated any intervention could be like a declaration of struggle with “disastrous consequences.”
The Sahel has turn into overrun by jihadi violence linked to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group. The violence has killed hundreds, displaced hundreds of thousands and divided nations. Mali and Burkina Faso have every undergone two coups since 2020.
Niger has not been hit as badly by extremists as Mali and Burkina Faso and was the one one of many three to see a decline in violence final yr, in response to the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.
That may change with jihadis transferring to extend their footprint in the event that they sense the military is split over the coup and fewer centered on preventing them, stated Ulf Laessing, head of the Sahel program on the Konrad Adenauer Foundation, which promotes democracy.
That’s what occurred in Burkina Faso after its second coup in September, and “I assume Niger will now see a similar scenario,” Laessing stated.
Laessing stated the coup probably will imply the collapse of talks between jihadis and the federal government that had solely simply begun in Niger.
Bazoum had vowed to reintegrate militants like Moussa in the event that they renounced violence and had begun making good on that promise, the Konrad Adenauer Foundation stated in a report.
A pilot program in Niger’s Tillaberi area in search of to reform jihadis has seen practically 160 former fighters return, with a whole bunch extra on a ready listing, stated an help employee concerned in this system who didn’t wish to be named because of the delicate present state of affairs in Niger.
Aneliese Bernard, a former U.S. State Department official who specialised in African affairs and director of Strategic Stabilization Advisors, a danger advisory group, stated this system is probably the most sustainable method to counterterrorism.
“If the program ends, there’s no pathway for jihadists to surrender in Niger. Which just gives them more reason to continue a forever war against the state,” she stated.
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