UN warns terrorist groups are spreading across West Africa and Sahel
Militants are pushing toward the Gulf of Guinea with drones and crypto, while 6.8 million people are already displaced across West Africa and the Sahel.
The United Nations warned that jihadist groups were pushing from the Sahel into coastal West African states, using drones, advanced communications and cryptocurrencies to widen their reach toward the Gulf of Guinea. The warning came in a Security Council briefing on July 14, 2026. The threat remained acute in the central Sahel and northern Nigeria and was increasingly spilling into countries farther south.
By the end of February 2026, West Africa and the Sahel hosted nearly 6.8 million internally displaced people and about 1.28 million refugees and asylum-seekers, while Gulf of Guinea states were hosting about 220,000 refugees. Women, children and young people bore the brunt of attacks, and schools were repeatedly caught in the crossfire.
Leonardo Santos Simão, the UN special representative for West Africa and the Sahel, tied drug trafficking more closely to terrorism, a mix that financed violence, undermined governance and complicated law enforcement. Armed groups were coordinating operations across borders and intersecting with transnational organized crime while seeking to consolidate territorial and economic control and erode public confidence in state authority.
In Mali, a coalition involving Jama’a Nusrat ul-Islam wa al-Muslimin and the Front de Libération de l’Azawad launched coordinated attacks on April 25, 2026, targeting Bamako, Kati, Gao, Kidal and Mopti. The fighting caused civilian and military casualties, including the death of Mali’s defense minister, and road blockades and attacks on power lines were disrupting supplies and essential services.
Pressure continued in Niger, Burkina Faso and Nigeria, where attacks, abductions and heavy civilian casualties persisted. Strikes near Niamey airport and a base in Tahoua showed the militant campaign was not confined to one corridor but was probing multiple fronts at once.
The Kamba border crossing between Niger and Nigeria reopened, high-level exchanges involved Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Niger, and the Mano River Union renewed its engagement. The Security Council also extended the mandate of the UN Office for West Africa and the Sahel until January 31, 2029.
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